Nindo
by blasphemy43
Summary: A shinobi walks with death. Deception is his life. Misery walks in his tracks. Hatred lives around him. Dreams shatter, lives are lost and duty reigns above all.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any form.

Uzumaki Naruto, age 8, walked the streets of Konoha, oblivious of the hateful stares that most who recognized him sent his way. The boy was not usually unaware of his surrounding, especially when it came to the contempt the village seemed to hold for him, which was impossible to miss, but the grin that threatened to split his face and the lightness in his step spoke volumes of his current emotional disposition. The reason for the happiness that the child felt was simple - he was finally going to join the Shinobi Academy of Konoha. Naruto had a dream, ever since he was a small boy, a dream that had helped him live through the hurdles his life had set for him. He wanted to be a shinobi and he wanted to make the Hokage, the only person in the entire village who seemed to care, proud. He wanted to live up to the standard that he had set for himself. And he was taking the first step to realizing his dream today. Well, to be fair that was no entirely true. The child had gone a long way in the last years from the hyperactive ball of energy and emotion he used to be. But to truly know how big the difference was, one must know his history. 

Naruto was born on October 10th, the day the Kyuubi no Kitsune attacked Konoha. This in itself wouldn't matter much - there had been much destruction and death that day, but his birth could have been seen as a new beginning, a triumph of life over death. Sadly, it wasn't so, because unbeknownst to him, he was the jailor of the demonic fox, the Jinchūriki of his village. Everyone who was old enough to actually remember the attack knew that fact, and the village was split in its opinion of the boy. The shinobi of the village, with some small, viewed the boy neutrally - he was a potential threat, but at the same time he was an asset that simply could not be thrown away. His very existence would protect the village when he was of age and his status was revealed, for the Jinchūriki were feared by the entire ninja world. On the other hand the civilian population, which was the largest in any of the great Shinobi villages, viewed the boy with barely concealed spite and hate. They blamed Naruto for the disaster that the fox brought upon them and for the death of the Yondaime Hokage, their powerful and beloved leader when the Kyuubi struck. The civilians called for the execution of the boy, without understanding what that would entitle - once the boy died, the fox would eventually reform, and in all like hood, attack the village again. This forced the Sandaime Hokage's hand, prompting him to establish a law that forbade people revealing the information about the boy, as well as harming him in any way. Sarutobi Hiruzen was old and until the faithful day of the attack, happily retired. And yet he was forced to take up the mantle of Hokage again, for lack of a better candidate. And while he was old, especially by shinobi standards, he was still powerful in the extreme and largely respected by both shinobi and civilians. And yet, despite all the power he wielded, he was not able to prevent the civilian part of the council, with the help of his old rival Danzo, pass a law that forbade any shinobi from interacting with the boy, at least until he was in the Academy. The civilian council did this in the hopes of stinting the boy's growth, making him less of a threat when he finally went on a rampage, which they considered simply a matter of time. Danzo did it in the hopes that when he eventually approached the boy, he would be so overcome with despair over his own weakness that any help he was willing to offer would be gladly taken. And it was then when he would make him a weapon and a shield, to serve and protect Konoha until the day of his death. 

These circumstances led to Naruto being placed in an orphanage, due to the unavailability of a better home to accommodate him. And it was there that he spent the next 5 years of his life. While Naruto was not mistreated in any way, the staff always held him at arm's reach, never actively interacting with him and, for the most part, leaving him to his own devises when they were not strictly needed. In fact, Naruto would have probably grown up to be mentally and socially underdeveloped if it was not for the visits that the Hokage paid him. The old man, who felt it his personal responsibility for what happened to the boy, always found time out of his busy shedual to come and simply play and interact with the boy. This act firmly inserted the old man into Naruto's heart and made him by far the most important person in his life. 

That was not to say that Naruto did not at least try to interact with the other orphans. Most of them were children of shinobi that had died at the attack and had nowhere else to be placed. Sadly, all of the children seemed to shy away from Naruto. As soon as he went inside the room, everybody froze and the small children even started crying. No one, save the Hokage, understood why the children had such reactions - the staff was not actively trying to portray Naruto in a bad light, they just tried to stay out of his way most of the time. The predicament became so bad that Naruto was given a room of his own and was encouraged to not try too hard to interact with the other children. 

What Naruto did not know at this point in his life was that he was unintentionally radiating a very slight killing intent, constantly and unconsciously. This, as well as the unnaturally fast healing that was discovered when the wound from a fall healed before the very eyes of the orphanage caretakers, were traits that Naruto acquired from his prisoner. The other effect that was later found was that a small amount of the beast's chakra constantly leaked out of the seal and was assimilated in his own reserves. This pressure constantly put pressure on his chakra coils, making his already formidable genetic predisposition to a having access to a large pool of chakra even more potent. 

While the killing intent, which was a too small of an amount for civilians living in a hidden village to notice, having been exposed to bigger amounts from shinobi on a nearly daily basis, the kids, who were much more sensitive to perceived threat instantly labeled Naruto dangerous even if they did not consciously know what dangerous meant and if they did, could not understand why they felt that way. The only one who both interacted with Naruto on a regular basis and was sensitive enough to feel the killing intent was the Hokage. Sadly he did not know of a way to help the boy he considered a grandchild, for he was too young to be able to control his killing intent. It was for this reason that he started giving him different scrolls and books, both on the shinobi world as well as fictional stories. 

Naruto grew up to be an energetic, bright and independent child, although few cared enough to notice. The Hokage, for his part, was very proud of the boy and when he turned 4 years old, started periodically allowed him in his office. There the boy was exposed to the shinobi of the village in all their eccentric glory. He kept quite while there were other people in there, for fear of being a bother to the Hokage, but he noted the respect they all seemed to hold for the Hokage, as well as their complete devotion to the village. Little by little those observations accumulated in the boy's mind, until one day he found that he knew, without a doubt, that someday he would become a shinobi that would serve the village and the Hokage with all his might. The day he shared his new dream with the Hokage was one of the happiest he could remember. The kind and proud smile that the Hokage wore while he listened, the belief he had that Naruto could definitely make his dream come true gave him strength for many years to come. In fact, this simple gesture was the moment Naruto became incapable of giving up and letting someone he considered precious down. 

Naruto did not really know how he should proceed to become a great shinobi, so he turned to the one thing that had kept him company, except the Hokage that is, since he could remember - scrolls and books. He quickly found out about chakra and that it was the turning stone of all ninja arts. Once he read about ninjutsu his mind went into overdrive imagining all the completely awesome ways in which he could use them and how cool it would be to make a fireball or make it rain or make an earthquake... it was somewhere around this point that the Hokage saw the look in Naruto's eyes and was quick to tell him that ninjutsu would still be out of his range for a couple of years, secretly dreading the moment when this was no longer the case. This made Naruto sulk for the rest of the day. He continued reading about chakra and jutsu, so that he could be ready for the moment he got the old man's agreement to start actually training in their use. 

That was Naruto's life in the orphanage. When he became 5 he asked the Hokage to move out to an apartment on his own. Naruto felt that he was independent enough to be able to take care of himself, not to mention the added bonus of not having small children cry the moment he stepped in the room. After a week of a combination of begging, pleading and giving subtle threats of escape, Sarutobi finally relented and allowed the boy to move out to a small apartment in the village, to the visible relief of both the other orphans and the workers there. Naruto's new apartment was very small - one room, with a small kitchen box and a bathroom. To him, though, it was the greatest place and the world, simply because it was his. Of course, there were some problems the boy faced when he started living on his own. The first one was that because of the village's disdain, many shops did not want his business. That was very perplexing for the blonde, after all who turns back a paying customer? Nevertheless he left the shops without causing any problems and went directly to the Hokage, who immediately gave Naruto the address of an ex-shinobi owned establishment. When Naruto went there, he actually received help with his groceries, instead of being let to buy different flavors of ramen as he probably would have, had he been left alone. This made for Naruto actually eating something akin to a varied diet. He had similar troubles every time he needed to buy anything, be it clothes or utensils, but soon he learned that the establishments that deal with shinobi were not inclined to turn him back and he started to give them his exclusive patronage, not that he had much choice in the matter. 

When Naruto had lived in his new apartment for a couple of months came the day that more than anything else, forged the path he would take as a shinobi. It was a day like any other. Naruto had finished his daily work around the house and was just sitting down to have a well-deserved lunch, when the Hokage entered his home. That in itself was slightly surprising, because he rarely had the time to visit in the middle of the day. After talking about everything and nothing the Hokage made to leave, but not before leaving a new book for Naruto. The book held the story of a shinobi, who on the orders of his master, had to go against his people. After an internal debate he did go through with his assignment, knowing fully well that he would be branded a traitor and would live the rest of his life on the run, for he knew that had he not done the deed disaster would have struck. The story was interesting by itself, but there was a part of it that burned itself in Naruto's mind. The shinobi from the book lived and died by his nindo, which left an enormous impact on the young boy. It was so impressive, that he instantly decided that he too would follow it for the rest of his life, in honor of the shinobi who did his duty. The nindo, which might have as well been a religious statement for Naruto, stated: 

A shinobi lives in shadow.  
>A shinobi seeks no fame.<br>A shinobi strikes at weakness.  
>A shinobi is shrouded in deception.<br>A shinobi blends in the environment.  
>A shinobi knows his enemy.<br>A shinobi does not hold back because of pride or pity.  
>A shinobi trusts his senses.<br>A shinobi lives the impossible. 

It was from this day forward that Naruto started taking a real interest in becoming someone worthy of being a shinobi, instead of simply waiting for the time he could use "cool jutsu". When he visited the Hokage's office, he started actually looking in the shinobi who came to meet with the leader of the village, and he saw that despite their eccentricity, they were all deadly serious when it came to actually participating in mission for the village. When he started noticing this trend in all the high ranking shinobi, Naruto decided to emulate them, and slowly started actively trying to be more serious in everything he did, be it working around the house, reading a book, or simply talking with the Hokage. 

This change did not go unnoticed by the old man, who despite being glad that Naruto was starting to grow up, was also somewhat concerned. He did not know if it was concern born from the possibility of Naruto growing too fast, or from the simple sadness that all adults felt when they realized children were beginning to walk their own path. In any case he decided that once Naruto's 6th birthday came, he would point him to the information he needed as to start preparing for the Academy. 

Soon after the new changes in Naruto started taking hold, his birthday came and the Hokage gifted him with access to the Konoha library and a list of books and scrolls he needed to go through before he started the Academy. The child was somewhere between comical and adorable that day, as he tried not to cry from gratitude for the trust and belief the Hokage placed in him. 

Naruto himself knew that he was neither the smartest, nor the most patient person in the village. And yet he was determined to read and understand the list of books the Hokage gave him in its entirety, so that he could excel at the Academy. Anything less would be a betrayal to the old man who placed such trust in him. 

The next year of Naruto's life was spent almost entirely on learning shinobi history. He learned about the establishment of the shinobi villages all around the wand. He looked at the Great shinobi wars, the reasons behind them and the reasons for their end. He looked at where shinobi came from, what they were, what they did. He learned everything that could be considered useful for a ninja in training. He did not know every fact by heart, because honestly, who needed to be some sort of walking dictionary to be a shinobi? Still he felt that he knew more than enough to be at least relatively knowledgeable, both about history and the current situation in the village. He was especially knowledgeable about the shinobi of Konoha, since he often saw many of them when he visited the old man. He made it his personal goal to know as much as possible about Konoha and its protectors, as he felt nothing but respect for them. 

Soon Naruto started looking at the more practical aspects of being a shinobi, namely taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. He had an understanding of how chakra worked from when he thought only of getting to try out "cool" jutsu. And yet, thanks to really taking the nindo which he adopted very seriously, he came to the conclusion that most ninjutsu were too flashy to be used by what he considered a "true" shinobi. That was the reason why he simply skimmed through the ninjutsu section, concentrating instead on taijutsu and genjutsu. He knew that he would be required to fight and kill when he became a real ninja. And yet he had a very specific taste when it came to the way he wanted to do that - he wanted to be deadly and efficient, to target weakness, to bring a quick and decisive finish to confrontations. He did not find any such style in the book, as it talked mostly about the basics and the physical conditioning every ninja, no matter his or hers specialty, should have. Naruto decided that actually finding a style that would suit him could wait until later and instead gave his complete concentration on the one thing he found the most in sinck with his nindo - genjutsu. Illusions, deception, playing with the opponent's mind, that was what a shinobi was all about and that was what he was going to learn, no matter how hard it could prove. 

All this did not come without outer changes. The one which was the most visible was the change in wardrobe. Naruto had read in a book on stealth that dark grey, dark blue and dark green were the most difficult colors to be seen at night. He started wearing those colors exclusively, even though he wore the usual for children of his age t-shirt and shorts combo. What was unusual though, was that he started commonly wearing a bandana that covered most of his hair. He was pretty proud of his blond locks, after all the Yondaime Hokage had the same color of hair and there really weren't all that many blondes in the village, but it was very easy to spot from a distance, which was not something desirable for a shinobi. 

Naruto himself was of average height for his age, neither tall nor short, mostly thanks to the shopkeepers that helped him with his groceries. It was very likely that if he had been left to his own devices, he would've eaten ramen exclusively, stunting both his body and mind in the process. All in all if the boy was inserted in a random shinobi village around the world, he would most probably blend in easily. Sadly for him, he lived in Konoha, where he could not blend in, no matter how he looked, simply because every adult knew who he was, and the vast majority of them thought negatively of him. 

After a while Naruto decided that he had enough theoretical knowledge for the moment and started thinking of ways to train his body, not only his mind. His first instinct was to go to the Hokage and ask him for training, or failing that, someone to tutor him. Sadly the Hokage explained that he could not personally help him, because he was extremely overworked and tutors were far too expensive for his financial situation. What the Hokage didn't tell him was that even if that was not the case, he could not approach a tutor due to the law passed by the council. The old man rationalized that if he shared that piece of information with Naruto, it would alienate him even further from the population of Konoha, and that was something that could not be permitted, as the boy was deemed a flight risk anyway. The Hokage was the only meaningful connection the boy had with the village, at least at the moment, and if something happened to him, disaster could strike. 

The realization that there was no one that could help him with training, as he neither had no friends his age, mostly thanks to either the civilian villagers badmouthing him, or the growing killer intent he let off, nor did he have anyone aside from the Hokage in the adult world. This left him with little choice but to stick to the basics and work his way up through self-study and improvisation. 

Naruto knew the basic physical conditioning exercises that were required to even start training in any style of taijutsu, so he took to running basic strength, speed and balance drills whenever he had the chance. Unknown to him he was training for far more hours than an average shinobi could, simply because the fox kept him from getting tired or hurt for unnaturally long hours. This was the reason he soon had the basic physique to start training actual taijutsu katas, but since there was no one to point that out to him, he relentlessly continued with the basic exercises. 

From time to time Naruto would have the chance to look actual shinobi sparring in one of the various training field around the village. All of them were on a completely different level than him and he completely realized that. And yet his after a while his senses started, very slowly, accustoming themselves to the speed and movements of the shinobi. It was at such an occurrence that one of the defining moments of Naruto's young career happened. While browsing around the training fields, Naruto heard two shinobi fighting and as was natural for him, went to observe. There he witnessed a very high level spar, where both shinobi used live steel. Both shinobi wielded short ninjato blades and their styles were virtually the same. They fought using no jutsu, obviously practicing their physical skills. What caught Naruto's attention was the way they used the ninjato - more as a supplementary tool, using it with one hand, aiming for gaps and weaknesses in each other's guard, helping the blade find its target by creating distractions with kicks and jabs. They regularly switched the hand that with which they used the blade and relied on speedy and precise attacks, instead of powerful swing. The two shinobi were evenly matched and looked as if they were in a choreographed dance and not a heated battle. And it was in the sound of the slashing blades clashing, in the sight of the steel that captured the surrounding light, in the beautiful dance of death that Naruto found beauty. The spar that he witnessed left him breathless and determined - this was what he wanted his taijutsu style to be. Soon Naruto supplied himself with a low quality ninjato and after training his basic physical exercises, started accustoming himself with the blade, with its balance and weight, the way it was easiest to move with it. He had no teacher and no sparring partner, so he largely worked by feel and instinct, knowing that once he entered the academy he would have the chance to really learn how to fight against a real opponent. 

Surprisingly, Naruto took to stealth like a duck to water. When he consciously tried, his steps were silent and he seemed to just blend with his surrounding, becoming part of the background. He thought that this could be an extremely useful skill for a ninja to have; he started shadowing ninja around the village and trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, often to great success. Of course he was far from perfect in the art and it was very unlikely that he could pose much of a challenge to a chūnin, let alone a higher grade ninja, in a real situation, instead of in the village, where their awareness was not as sharp as in the field. Still, Naruto strived to excel at this particular art as it was directly parallel with one of the rules of his nindo. 

Naruto had the most trouble with his chakra. When he first tried actively working with it he was met with little to no success. Naruto was sure he did everything the way he was supposed to, and yet even when he succeeded, even in the easiest chakra manipulation exercises imaginable, it was short-lived and a challenge. Naruto brought his problems before the Hokage, who explained that he had an extremely large chakra reserve for someone his age, which made it hard for him to exercise precise control. While this was partially true, the real reason, which could not be shared with Naruto, was that the Kyuubi chakra the seal constantly let out interfered with his Natural chakra flow, even though it was constantly assimilated. Sadly, this was not information the Hokage was willing to diverge just yet, so instead he proposed to Naruto that he should start meditating while actively trying to feel and get accustomed to the chakra flowing through his body. 

Naruto started doing the exercises and after a while began to actually understand how his chakra worked. He started practicing the chakra exercises again, but this time he tried to point the energy, and not simply to wrestle control. With this method he managed to be enormously more successful, although he was still very far from perfect. 

Naruto struggled so hard with chakra control simply because he read that it was one of the two most important factors when constructing and utilizing genjutsu. Ever since dedicating himself to his new nindo, he had started disregarding most ninjutsu - yes, some of them sounded extremely useful, but most of them were too, for a lack of better word, flashy. For Naruto, genjutsu was the true ninja art and he would be damned if he could not master it in time. He knew he possessed one of the two most important factors when constructing illusions - imagination, but he lacked the chakra control for any of the more complex and intricate illusions. 

While the meditation eventually achieved its desired results, Naruto continued practicing it because it gave him an unexpected, but still welcome side effect - it made him calmer and his mind sharper, two qualities that he sorely needed. While Naruto did not completely stop blowing up when sufficiently pushed, he drastically reduced both the intensity and the quantity of these happenings. 

The only direct way the Hokage interfered with Naruto's training was when he taught him about killer intent. The old man explained that the boy seemed to have a natural talent for that particular part of a shinobi repertoire, neglecting to mention the fox in his explanation. Never the less he taught the boy how to turn his boy on and off, how to focus it and how to harness it to its full potential, but also cautioned him to use it with caution, since there were not many children his age that could resist it. 

Despite not having any real friends in his childhood, he felt neither alone, nor bored. He had the Hokage, who he considered more than family, and he had his studies and training, which occupied his time completely. He was not resentful towards the village, nor was he yearning for attention, as that would go against his beliefs. He strived to improve with a vigor few possessed and sought knowledge with the persistency all would envy. 

It was such a boy that walked the streets of Konoha in his 8th year on his way to enter the Shinobi Academy for the first time.


	2. The Academy

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially Naruto.**

It was a beautiful day in Konoha, worthy of being the start of the Konoha Academy year, or at least so a certain person walking through the streets, was thinking. Now this was hardly the only thing going through his brain at the moment because, well Naruto was simply giddy, stares from people he did not know and all. He was finally starting the academy! In just a couple of years, which to be honest seemed like an eternity, he would be a full-fledged shinobi, working for the old man and actually helping instead of just being a bother to him. Now wouldn't that be just the greatest? Not to mention that he would be meeting other people who wanted to become shinobi... it'd be great to have someone to talk to about exercise and techniques besides the Hokage. He was great, being the Hokage and all, but he had so much to do and Naruto simply did not have the hearth to pester him while he was working. But now everything would change! All the kdis in his year would totally want to compare notes, quite literally sometimes, he did have notes somewhere on him... anyway it would be great!

They were such thoughts that Uzumaki Naruto, shinobi enthusiast, entertained while making his way towards the Academy. It was around midday, with the sun shining brightly and a slight wind keeping it from becoming too hot. Naruto's internal clock, finely tuned after many a training sessions gone way past what was considered the waking hours, told him that he had more than enough time to make his way to the grounds and even be a little early. Naruto, clad in his best, read - never used for training, clothes consisting of plain midnight blue shorts, a dark green t-shirt with a whirlpool design on the back, standard shinobi sandals the same color as his shorts and a black bandana that covered his messy blond hair, bar a few longer strands, had a grin that threatened to split his face. The grin itself conveyed complete happiness, but still gave him a somewhat bestial appearance thanks to the whisker like birthmarks on his face and his slightly enlarged canines. It was a facial expression that few had seen in the village - the Hokage obviously being one, the others being only people who had by chance came across him when he completed an especially difficult set of exercises. Most of the time the civilian population of the village saw him wearing a calm and detached expression. This new, smiling and happy person scared quite a few of them. After all, there was definitely no way that anything that made the Kyuubi, which they assumed he was, happy could be even a remotely good thing for them... and for the village of course.

After about ten more minutes of walking Naruto found himself in front of the large non-descript building that hosted the Academy. There were quite a few people already ranging from what looked like instructors to students, both new and old. As a matter of fact you could quite easily distinguish the new students from the old simply by their excitement or paralyzing fear, baring a few notable exceptions. The most obvious one was a boy wearing a black shirt with white shorts, the shirt bearing what Naruto identified as the Uchiha clan's fan. This would make the boy Uchiha Sasuke, the only survivor of the clan. He was standing aside from everyone else, looking uninterested in the goings-on and annoyed with the world as a whole. The only other person who did not seem even slightly intimidated or excited to be at the day that put the start of his shinobi career, was a boy who wore nondescript grey clothing and hair tied upward, that made it look slightly like a pineapple. By his expression Naruto concluded that he was either incredibly good at hiding his emotions or he simply did not care the slightest bit. By the way he was eyeing the sky; Naruto would definitely place a bet on the second.

The only people who seemed to notice Naruto's arrival were the instructors, who spared him a glance that lingered just a tad more than normal. None of the students seemed to have even noticed him, which either spoke volumes about his stealth abilities or more likely, was because everyone was far too preoccupied with themselves or their friends to spare even a glance on some nobody. It could have probably made Naruto feel bad, had it not been obvious that no one here was actually talking of anything of importance. He even had the feeling that some, if not most, of the people here did not take the Academy seriously, and that was just strange. How could you treat being a shinobi, like a, well, job? What job forced you to risk your life on a general basis? What job required you to kill torture and get tortured, gather and protect information that could very well spell the destruction of your village? Probably at least 90% of the people here would not make it and would soon be kicked out... oh well, their loss.

About ten minutes after Naruto entered the courtyard, a hush descent upon the crowd. The reason for the abrupt stop of the buzzing conversations that were going on until that point was the arrival of the Hokage, in all his glory - with his ceremonial garb and hat, puffing pipe in hand. He was flanked by two ANBU members who most probably served as his personal guard. The old leader of the village walked leisurely, sparing a look for every one of the shinobi hopefuls, each look filled with kindness. When his eyes reached Naruto a small smile graced his features, a smile that was returned a thousandfold by the aforementioned boy. Soon the Hokage reached a podium and as was a tradition in the beginning of the year in the Academy, prepared to give a speech aimed at both inspiring the young recruits and to caution them on the path that they had chosen - one that was filled with danger and death was a constant companion.

His gaze swept over the young boys and girls, happiness mixed with regret for having to force children to begin preparing for affairs best left for adults. And yet he had no real choice - that was the life of a shinobi, and it was a life that they had to be prepared for.

"For those of you who are returning - welcome back. Although this speech is not aimed at you, as you have already heard it, you would do well to listen and reinforce your determination for the future. As for those who are here for the first time - welcome to the Konoha Shinobi Academy. I would love nothing more than to say that I hope you enjoy your time here, I am afraid that this is not for me to say. When you step through these doors you enter a different world - the world of the shinobi. Some of you, coming from clans or families that have shinobi, would understand this world, or so you would think. But in reality, there is nothing that can prepare you for what is to come. The world is an ugly place for people like us. Death and deception will be your constant companions and you have to be prepared for them. And yet there is a light that shines through even the darkest times. Here in Konoha we pride ourselves on our trusting our comrades. To attack one of us is to attack us all and have no doubt - anyone foolhardy enough to do such a thing will have hell the pay. Trust your teachers, for they are wise, and prepare for the day you will become active shinobi, but never forget that alone, you may be strong, but together - we are invincible. That is the reason Konoha has prospered, that is the way every shinobi of our village lives and that is the way you will live. From here on, I wish you all the best and I hope to see all of you become splendid shinobi."

After the Hokage's final words a polite clap came from the crowd, and none was louder than the sound that Naruto made. Interestingly enough both Naruto and the old man were thinking along the same lines, hoping beyond hope that the speech had actually made an impression, especially on the less serious of the students. The Hokage vacated the podium and slowly made his way towards the tower and the mountains of work that he had yet to finish.

When the Hokage was out of sight, the staff ushered the students to the classrooms so that their shinobi education could start.

Naruto sat in the middle of a large group of kids in the training grounds of the academy. Today was the first sparring exercise the kids participated in and he was nervous. Oh, he had trained his taijutsu. But it was one thing going through katas and generally preparing yourself physically and mentally and a completely different thing to actually fight a living person. Until now he had been doing pretty well at the Academy. He was not at the top of the class, but he definitely wasn't at the bottom either. His academic studies were going fine and his practicals were topped only by the Uchiha, which was strange, considering how many clan heads were in his class. He hadn't really gotten to know anyone at that point, mostly because he was preoccupied with his self-imposed training and trying to keep up with the facts that the teachers lectured him on. It was especially difficult to stay on top of things since most teachers seemed to berate him for every mistake he made. That could have had a negative impact on his education if it wasn't for the fact that the Hokage constantly acknowledged how well he doing.

Naruto's inner monologue was cut short as he heard his name being called. And, of course, he was going to fight Sasuke. Sometimes the blonde really thought that the heavens delighted in making fun of him. After all, what better way to sooth his nerves than having to fight the arguably best taijutsu user in the class? Naruto sighed to himself, making his way to the ring where he would fight, to the sounds of pre-pubescent girls shrilly calling 'Sasuke-kun!' Naruto unconsciously shivered - their voices sounded almost like nails being dragged over a black board. Honestly at moments like this he could truly respect the Uchiha for not showing even a bit of the distress he was surely feeling. Not hitting someone upside the head over such treatment showed iron self-control that Naruto himself hoped one day to achieve. Truly, Sasuke was a genius in the shinobi arts.

Naruto stood in the middle of the circle, face to face with the raven headed youth he was going to fight against. Sasuke's face was emotionless, of course, but his eyes seemed somewhat unfocused and glassy. With a stat Naruto realized that the Uchiha wasn't really looking at Naruto as an opponent. He had the same significance to the boy as a stone. This rid Naruto of any lingering doubts in himself - Sasuke was going to eat it. There was no way that the blond was going to lose to someone who wasn't even focusing on the fight.

At the signal from the instructor, who had a distinctive scar on his nose and whose name was Iruka, both got into their respective taijutsu stance. Naruto was used to handling a sword while training, but it was obvious that that wouldn't be allowed in a schoolyard spar and besides it just would not due for him to reveal all of his skills before everyone's eyes. After all the best way to fool your enemies is to fool your friends, no matter how tentative the term friend was in this case.

Iruka put his hand down and the children rushed towards each other. Naruto lashed out with a punch aimed at Sasuke's face, which he easily blocked. The raven head retaliated with a high kick that Naruto ducked under, using the motion to take a swipe at his feet. Sasuke flipped went with the motion flipping sideways and both of them jumped away from each other. Slowly the glassy look in Sasuke's eyes was replaced with one of concentration, which instantly made Naruto tense and briefly lose the tight control he held over his killing intent. This startled the children, minus Sasuke who was more than used to the feeling from the night his world was completely changed. Naruto quickly restored his balance, waiting for the other boy to make a move. Iruka briefly considered calling the spar to an end, for fear of it going too far, but the boys rushed to each other before he could stop them.

The boys went through punch after punch, kick after kick, without any of them scoring anything more than glancing kicks. Naruto managed to keep his composure, while Sasuke's face started forming a deeper and deeper frown the longer the battle continued. He could feel that his opponent preferred not to fight empty handed, just like him. What made him slowly lose his presence of mind was that this clan less boy could keep up with him perfectly.

After blocking the latest of Sasuke's punches, Naruto tried to push him out of balance and lashed out with a kick towards his stomach. Sasuke went with the motion and spun out of the way, creating some distance. Naruto brought down his leg to the ground, resuming his stance and let a smile onto his face. This was so much fun! Finally he could actually test his mettle against someone. And not just some random shinobi wannabe, but a boy who seemed to be completely equal with him! There was literally nothing that could make his day better at the moment.

Both Naruto and Sasuke were so engrossed with the spar that they did not notice the change in atmosphere in their surroundings. Where there were shrill screams, murmurs and even some bets being made, now there was only silence. Even Iruka didn't want to stop the fight despite his fears of it going overboard, happy that two of his students seemed to be not only equally matched, but also extremely talented. He was dubious when the Hokage told him that Naruto would definitely surprise him and now he regretted ever doubting the words of the old shinobi. The children themselves, with one glaring exception in the form of Shikamaru, were shocked to see anyone in the class actually making the Uchiha sweat.

The aforementioned Uchiha was on the point of braking into a rage. How was this possible? This no-name orphan was pushing him to the limit! He knew that he had better technique, but it seemed that the boy was physically superior to him, putting them on roughly the same level. Instinctively his hand twitched towards his kunai pouch. The blond instantly registered the movement, his own hand moving towards the back of his waist where his ninjato usually hang. Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the sight, understanding that the boy before him was primary a sword user.

Iruka saw the not too subtle movements the boys were making and instantly went between them, putting one hand on each of the boys to let them know that the spar was over.

"OK, boys that was... very impressive. It's a draw."

The sounds of amazement, out of most of the class, and denial, out of the cult following that Sasuke had, could be heard through the Academy. Grumbling, all of the betters started giving ryo notes to a smug, for him, looking Shikamaru who was the only one who had bet on the outcome of the fight being a draw. Predictably when he was asked how exactly he knew that, the only response that he gave was a sigh and a muttered 'Troublesome'.

While this was going on Sasuke, once more schooling his features, made his way to the inside of the building. Naruto, who had enjoyed the spar immensely, followed him, finally reaching him about halfway to the classroom. The blond put his hand on the other boys shoulder and was surprised when the Uchiha knocked it down with a wide hand motion. They looked at each other for a moment before Naruto offered his hand. The raven headed boy looked at it with some surprise.

"What do you want, blondie?" the Uchiha said looking at the hand as if it was going to bite him. "Want to curry favor with the clan?"

"What? No! I want to shake your hand, duh. This was my first real spar, it was really awesome!" Naruto said, not understanding why he would want to suck up to a clan. "Actually I was hoping we could do this again, but this time for real! We both know that we'd be much more awesome with weapons!"

Sasuke looked at the blond incredulously. Did he actually think he would waste his time with him? He had much more important things to do than play around with some idiot, no matter how far he managed to push him in their spar.

"Tch, I don't have time for this..." Sasuke turned around and began walking towards the classroom again.

"Oh, come on don't be like that. The old man told me that I'd become much stronger if I had someone to practice with, I'm sure we could help each other to blow away everyone in the class... not that we are having too much trouble with that..." Naruto said, making the Uchiha survivor stop and face him again.

"The old man?" the raven headed boy asked "I thought you were an orphan, what old man?"

"Oh, the Hokage, he comes visit me whenever he has the time." Naruto answered, hoping that now the boy would relent and practice with him. After all who in their right mind would disregard advice coming from the strongest shinobi in the village? "He's really smart, so he should know what he's talking about."

Sasuke stared at the boy, surprise visible on his face. The Hokage came to visit him? The Hokage gave him advice? Why? What did the Hokage see in the boy? And why didn't he come to give him advice? He was the Uchiha survivor! He had vowed to bring his brother to justice! And yet, he supposed, the boy could be useful. If he had the Hokage's trust, the blond could help him gain power much faster than he could otherwise. And, despite not being able to acknowledge it even before himself, he was lonely and Naruto had made him talk more than he had in years, aside from answering questions in the Academy.

"Hn. Alright, blond... Naruto. We could meet up after classes are over. We'll see if we could... help each other." he said, once more continuing his walk towards the classroom.

Naruto beamed at the other boy and started walking besides him. Finally he would have someone to train with! He would have to buy another ninjato and blunt it, but this was still pretty cool. The Hokage was always on his case about making friends his age, maybe he would be happy for once. Actually it could be a good idea to use the whole "cute small child" to make him buy the ninjato. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea...

It was a couple of weeks after Naruto's spar with Sasuke and training with each other had become a daily occurrence. That was not to say that they liked each other - Sasuke was still a distant bastard with illusions of superiority to everyone else and Naruto knew that the raven headed boy hated how easy going the boy was, mostly because he still managed to keep up perfectly with him. Despite that, or maybe because of that, everything was going swimmingly and having an actual partner to work with did wonders for both their skills.

Nobody mentioned the draw between the two, for various reasons. Most of the girls in the class refused to believe that there was anyone who could fight their beloved Sasuke to a standstill, to the eternal shame of the Uchiha. He knew perfectly well that there were lots of people stronger than him and did not see why he was put on such a pedestal. The other part of the class did not mention it because they still remembered the killing intent the blond had used - despite not yet knowing exactly what it was they instinctively understood it did not bode well for someone to goad the blonde.

What the class did talk about was that the Uchiha and Naruto seemed to actually get along. Sasuke even talked with him, without treats of bodily harm, from time to time, which was unheard of. The only reason that Uzumaki was not at the mercy of a rabid fan base was that they, even if they didn't want to acknowledge it, were all scared of him. And it was today when that fear would be further reinforced, making the blonde practically untouchable for the duration of his Academy stay.

The class had kunai practice that day. Naruto and Sasuke were somewhat away from the rest of the class having an impromptu competition on who would do better. As it was, the Uchiha was leading by one hit and Naruto was getting desperate - he was pretty sure he wouldn't be winning today, which would lead to Sasuke looking at him smugly for the rest of the evening. And that was annoying. With a sigh, he let loose his last kunai at about the same moment the other boy did, with both of them hitting the target, making the Uchiha survivor the winner. He looked at his counterpart with an expression of smugness and Naruto simply nodded, acknowledging the loss.

At the same time that this was going on, Inuzuka Kiba, one of the future clan heads in the class looked at the two with barely restrained anger. Due to the close connections his clan had with dogs and the animalistic traits they portrayed, he had been though from an early age that he should be dominant. Well, he was also thought that when he met someone who was superior to himself, he should back down, but somehow that had currently slipped his mind. Anyway, the two boys were grinding on his nerves because not only did they not acknowledge his dominance, but seemed to not even know he exited. The real reason he was feeling like that was the very real dread he felt coming from the whiskered boy. The bestial looking boy decided that today would be the day when he would once and for all show who was on top in this pack.

Kiba was very particular when it came to his clan's view on things.

The Inuzuka made his way to the two boys who were currently in the middle of glaring at each other, Naruto contemplating how he would pay the Uchiha back for this little loss, while Sasuke thought much along the same lines, but on how to prevent the boy from getting payback. None of them noticed Kiba coming to them, so his would voice made them both flinch and turn to him.

"Uchiha, Uzumaki." The boy all but roared "I guess both of you did pretty well, for an orphan and the brother of a psycho."

Sasuke instantly tensed, as he did every time someone mentioned his brother in earshot of him and was about to jump the other boy when Naruto grabbed his wrist and shook his head. This simple gesture made the Uchiha somewhat calmer and he simply glared at the Inuzuka.

Kiba himself knew that he was being a bit harsh, but he wanted it to be known beyond a doubt that he wasn't afraid of the two. The words also served as something of a challenge. While Sasuke's glare showed that he had gotten to him, Naruto's unfaltering smile made him a bit nervous.

"Well, I guess it is to be expected of the great Uchiha clan" he continued "but really Sasuke? You're hanging out with some clan less twerp? Your parents must be rolling in their graves."

At this point a small tick appeared bellow one of Sasuke's eyes. The only reason that the dog boy didn't have a kunai stuck in his eye right now was that Naruto still gripped his wrist and he had applied a little bit more pressure the moment he had started to move towards Kiba.

Kiba himself was feeling pretty well. Neither of the boys had said anything, despite Sasuke being visibly pissed off. In his mind this translated to him winning the argument, so he pressed on, hoping to get Naruto out of balance.

"So, Uzumaki, I heard you live alone, how's that working out for you?"

"Pretty well Kiba, thank you for the concern." Naruto answered keeping his small smile.

"I also heard that the only one who comes to visit is the Hokage. Is that a new program for orphans?"

"No, Kiba, Hokage-sama and I are just close."

"Oh well, I guess everyone has to go senile at some point, even the Hokage." The Inuzuka said smugly "I mean what other reason would there be to visit a nobody like you, right?"

Kiba saw the smile that Naruto always had slowly fade away, happy that he finally managed to get under his skin. He quickly realized his mistake as a sudden pressure coming from the blond almost made him fall to his knees. His eyes widened considerably, but he could not speak and could not move.

Where Naruto previously was with a small smile and a generally docile expression, now stood a completely different boy. His face had lost any emotion, with the only visible reaction to the words being his slightly narrowed eyes. But the real reason behind Kiba freezing and the rest of the class, including the instructor who looked after them today, Mizuki, staring fearfully towards the blond was that he had completely let the tight grip he constantly kept on his killing intent loose, aiming everything he had towards the dog boy.

"Kiba" Naruto said, his voice making ice look hot "if you dare to insult the Hokage before me again, do not doubt that I will personally erase your existence, consequences be damned."

As quickly as it started the pressure pouring out of the blond stopped and he returned to his smiling demeanor.

"Now, why don't you run along to the rest of the class and leave us alone?" Naruto said cheerfully ushering the other boy with his hand. When he got no answer from the still shaky Inuzuka, he simply shrugged and turned to an again smirking Sasuke and started discussing kunai throwing techniques.

Kiba slowly made his way towards the rest of the class, engaging all his will to not sprint away from the blond.

Coincidently this was the last day anyone made any sort of jab towards Naruto and it was a well-known fact that anyone who did would probably pay a price. The rumor served only to increase the hateful stares Naruto got from the villagers, which were promptly ignored, and put him in the spotlight as far as most of the clans in the village were concerned.

Time passed, with the Academy offering little challenge for Naruto. He and Sasuke continued training together, leaven the rest of their year far behind skill wise. There was some talk of letting them graduate early, but it was hastily shot down by the Hokage, who feared the creation of another Itachi.

As far as Naruto's personal life came there wasn't much to talk about. He did not have much contact with most of his class. After their little confrontation Kiba had apologized and they were civil to each other. Naruto had made Shikamaru teach him shogi and the two played against each other from time to time. The blond always lost miserably. The Nara never made fun of Naruto, but he could always feel a subtle smugness coming from the future clan head after a win. Chouji and him talked about food from time to time, Naruto having to learn to cook for himself from a young age. They both enjoyed the conversations. Naruto got along well with Shino, despite often arguing with him that being so serious all the time was not healthy. The only contact he had with Sakura and Ino when they once bumped into him while in the middle of one of their infamous races. He was about to swear revenge on them and their dog too, but decided against it and instead just helped Sasuke to hide from them whenever he could.

Very soon came the day of the graduation test. Naruto was feeling very nervous despite himself. Objectively he knew that he would have no trouble with any part of the exam. Subjectively his stomach was in knots and he constantly feared that he would fail and shame the old man. Soon his name was called and with a much more subdued expression than usual, he made his way forward.

Iruka looked at the blond, who he had come to like over the course of the four years he had taught him and gave him a reassuring smile.

"OK Naruto, I want you to make at least 3 clones. Your other practical exams were splendid, by the way, so no pressure." Iruka said, trying to reassure the obviously nervous blond.

Naruto took a deep breath and went through the seals carefully, mindful of any mistake.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" he said softly.

Three perfect clones popped into existence besides him. Iruka inspected each of them and, finding no visible flaw, patted Naruto on the head and gave him a bright smile.

"Congratulations Naruto you... pass." With those words the teacher gave Naruto a leaf headband.

Naruto for his part was nearly flipping from joy at this point. Finally he was a shinobi! He could work to make the old man happy and actually help him. In his short life, Naruto knew that there wasn't a happier day than this. With a wide smile on his face, he made his way towards Sasuke, nodding to the occasional congratulations he got from the class.

The Uchiha turned to him with a small smirk. He had already gotten his headband and over the initial rush of happiness.

"Well that was... anticlimactic." the Uchiha said "Honestly, I expected this whole final test to be a bit harder."

"Oh, get off your high horse Sasuke; you know perfectly well that we are just awesome like that." Naruto said with a wave of his hand"I don't think anyone trained as hard us in our year, so it's normal for us to come out on top."

"Well, it was still lame, and there still are too many people who graduated."

"Yeah, that's true. I wonder if there is something more to becoming a genin..."

"Hn. Maybe there is. We'll see tomorrow." With those words Sasuke went for the door, while Naruto waited to see who else was going to pass.

At the door the Uchiha stopped and turned.

"For what it's worth I hope we end up in the same team. You are probably the only one in this class who I can stomach anyway."

"Aw, are you going soft on me Sasuke? I'm sure the girls will love to hear all about it." Naruto replied with a smile.

"... Idiot" The Uchiha left, closing the door behind him with a bang.

Naruto snickered and continued looking at the other genin hopefuls, while one thought was continually spinning in his head.

'Finally, it begins.'

Author's Notes:

Hello and welcome to the second chapter of my story. Here we saw some of the time in the Academy. There were a couple of more scenes I wanted to include, but I wasn't sure if it was needed. If anyone is interested I could probably make an omake or two at a later point.

Next chapter will have the team placement as well as the test. Also a small omake of what happened with Mizuki now that Naruto is... not available for being a scapegoat.

And that's all I think. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read.

Cheers,  
>Simon<p> 


	3. A new teacher

Naruto was walking towards the Hokage tower to meet with the old man with barely restrained glee. He really wanted to brag about actually making the cut, despite the test being somewhat simple. And yet, surprisingly there were some people who failed. Obviously the future clan heads passed, together with a couple of civilian children, but there was nothing truly spectacular about the test.

While he was mussing on the positive and negative points of the graduates and thinking about his team placement, Naruto made his way to the tower, absentmindedly greeted the Hokage's secretary and entered the room.

Luckily there was no one inside, aside from the Hokage himself and a huge pile of paperwork, as per usual. The old man was chewing on his pipe, obviously engrossed in the process of reading and signing the documents.

The moment Naruto entered the room, he lifted his head and a small smile made his way to his face. By the boy's generally happy disposition he could easily tell that he was not here to tell him bad news, which was not surprising when one knew how hard he trained. Hiruzen loved the boy like a grandson and knew that he would soon become one of the most important figures in the village. Honestly if he had the time, he would love nothing more than take the boy under his wing and train him - he was sure it would be time well spent and the crowning achievement in his long life.

These thoughts quickly led the old man to his old team, the Sanin as they were known after their battle with Hanzo the Salamander during the second shinobi war. The memories were bittersweet - he still blamed himself for Orochimaru's betrayal, for Tsunade's loss of faith and Jiraya staying as far away from the village as possible. All of these could be attributed on mistakes he had made, mistakes that haunted him to this very day.

And yet, when he saw the boy before him, he could not help but smile. He knew that Naruto would carry on the Will of Fire. He was especially happy of how the boy had made friends with the Uchiha survivor - a deeply disturbed boy, who could only prosper with people who were important to him around.

Naruto made his way towards a chair before the Hokage and sat down, smiling brightly to the single most important person in his life.

"Hello Naruto, what brings you here today?" the old man asked, despite knowing perfectly well what the blond probably wanted to write in giant flaming characters in the sky.

"Oh, no reason jiji, no reason at all." Naruto answered with a sly smile "I just wanted to see how you were doing, if something interesting had happened and there is this small thing I wanted to tell you, but I forget... Ah, right!"

Naruto whipped out the Konoha forehead protector he was given after he finished the exam out of his pocket and showed it proudly while openly laughing.

"I'm a shinobi now jiji, a shinobi! Isn't that great? You'll give me missions and I'll complete them and you'll be proud of me, it's going to be great!"

"Well Naruto, technically, you are not a shinobi yet; you'll have to wait for that until tomorrow. But I think congratulations are in order." Hiruzen said smiling at his charges antics.

"C'mon jiji, don't rain on my parade, today is my day. You might want to make the test a bit more difficult though, I'm not sure everyone who passed should have passed." Naruto said, becoming just a bit more serious at the last sentence.

The Hokage raised his eyebrows at the boy and spoke "Don't worry Naruto; there is a reason why the test is not more difficult, a reason you will find soon enough."

Naruto started to pout turning his blue eyes at the old man "I hate it when you're cryptic jiji. It always spells trouble."

"One of the joys of being old, Naruto. Don't try to take it away from me youngster." the Hokage answered jokingly.

"Anyway, I have something for you Naruto. Somehow I knew you would pass, so I prepared."

"Oh, are you going to finally tell me why people don't seem to like me and why I had to train to control my killing intent? Because I asked, no one else has such problems." Naruto said with barely restrained anticipation.

"No Naruto, I'm sorry but it is a secret beyond you, at least for now." the old man answered, true regret showing on his face. That regret was the only reason Naruto accepted the answer - he clearly saw that the Hokage would love nothing more than to tell him, but could not. That was the life of a shinobi and Naruto was one of the few children who understood that. "But I'll make you a deal. The moment you become a chūnin, which I'm sure won't take too long, I will tell you everything you need to know."

"Really? Thanks jiji, you're awesome!" said Naruto, now having something besides training and missions to look forward to. "So what do you have for me then?"

"Now, now don't be hasty. First I have some advice for you." Seeing the boy's face begin to drop, Hiruzen quickly added "Don't worry, I have a present too."

Naruto instantly cheered up and looked attentively at the old man, who had shifted slightly in his seat and looked serious. Long exposure to the Hokage's quirks had taught the blond that when he was serious, there was always a good reason behind it.

"I know how uncomfortable you are when you sit in one place too much, so I'll get straight to the point." the old man started "When you become active shinobi of the leaf, you lose your civilian privileges, such as the stipend you received until now, active from next month. Don't worry, if you take missions regularly you will have no problem with your money, if you don't spend it recklessly, which I trust you won't do."

Here the old man paused, waiting for Naruto to confirm his understanding which came quickly. Sometimes he felt too old to be a parental figure again. But every time he actually saw the boy, he remembered why exactly it was worth it.

"Another thing that you must remember is that now I am officially your military superior. Protocol requires from you to show respect to me. This means no more jiji in public."

"Of course Hokage-sama, you know perfectly well that I respect you above all others." Naruto answered stiffly, slight hurt visible on his face.

Hiruzen smiled softly at the boy. Sometimes he took things too seriously for his own good.

"I know that Naruto. And remember, I did say in public. I don't mind the least when we are in private." At that, Naruto once again resumed smiling happily, awaiting his present. The old man was all too happy to oblige.

"And since I ran out of things to caution you on and I can see that you can barely restrain yourself, I think it's time for me to give you your present." The Hokage outright laughed at the appalled look on Naruto's face "Come now Naruto, I have been a shinobi for how many years? It is my job to read people. Not to mention that, as you know I have both sons and a grandson. I know that look perfectly."

Without teasing the blond anymore the Hokage retrieved a thin, black rectangle box that was about 80 cm long and gave it to Naruto, motioning for him to open it.

Naruto, half-expecting what he would find inside, lifted the top of the box, revealing guard less ninjato with a pitch black handle and scabbard. He lifted the blade with two hands, noticing that it was a little lighter than the one he used now, and began drawing the blade, stopping when he saw the metal. It was darker than, normal and looked extremely well forged. He turned a questioning look at the Hokage, who was smiling at the boy before him.

"I know your old sword was due for a change, so I had this prepared for you. It is a very high quality weapon and I expect you to take good care of it."

Naruto, slightly teary eyed, went to hug the old man who had been there for him his entire life, mumbling "Thank you, jiji."

Hiruzen patted the boy on the back and just as quietly answered "You're welcome."

Naruto straightened himself and backed away from the old man, who coughed a bit, defusing the highly emotional scene.

"Now Naruto, I would suggest you rest up for tomorrow. I'm sure it will be a most pleasant day."

With a slight bow Naruto answered "Hai, Hokage-sama." Grinning at the old man's slightly surprised expression he said, making his way out of the room "Hey, I have to start practicing sometime!"

As the door closed behind him, a silhouette came out of the shadow, looking at where the boy used to sit.

"So, what do you think of him?" The Hokage asked.

"... he's a good kid" the person answered, mirth obvious in his voice.

XXXXX

Uchiha Sasuke, the sole survivor of the Uchiha massacre, woke up at sunrise, as he usually did. Despite being extremely diligent when it came to shinobi training, Sasuke did not wake up so early by choice. Most nights he slept uneasily, plagued by nightmares, brought forth by his obsession with his brother and killing him to avenge the clan.

From an intellectual standpoint he understood that he was obsessed. He was a smart child and the numerous psychologists that had, in the end, declared him fit for active duty had noted this trait. He knew he was obsessed. But he also thought it was not strange.

Few people could come out of a genjutsu such as the one his brother had put on him with only obsession, no matter how intense. His will was strong. Now it was only a matter of time before his body caught up.

As he went through the normal morning rituals that most people develop at some point it their life, Sasuke thought about strength. If you had asked him a couple of years back where he thought he would be at this point in time, the hopeless naivety of his words would have made any experienced shinobi laugh. Well, any shinobi who did not try to be on the good side of the last scion of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha.

He had honestly believed that once he made it through the Academy, became shinobi of the Leaf, he would have strength enough to find and kill his brother.

His brother, the S class criminal, who had singlehandedly killed his entire clan, who had hailed him as a genius beyond measure.

How tragically naive.

If his ego allowed him, he would acknowledge that the one who had broken the illusion he had made for himself was Naruto. At first he had honestly started training with the blond so as to push himself further. And that had bore fruit - he, along with Naruto, was above and beyond the standard Academy graduate. He had trained his body and skill to points which he did not think he would reach before actually becoming a shinobi.

And yet he was weak.

In the grand scheme of things, both he and Naruto, despite the blood and sweat they had shed to reach the skills they had, were simply weak.

It was Naruto who had taught him that.

At first the Uchiha resented his positive attitude, his constant small smile, his way of speaking. He respected his skills, but he truly disliked the boy. And he still did.

Except of when the boy looked like a drawn sword.

That was the only way to describe it. From time to time the boy became a different entity entirely. His face became impassive, losing his smile. He tensed, losing his relaxed pose. A pressure, which Naruto had called killing intent, made Sasuke's hair stand on end.

Yes, a drawn sword was a good metaphor.

But even when he was not dangerous, he was somehow savvy about the world. Sometimes he spoke like the older shinobi that came to the compound before Itachi turned traitor.

Naruto claimed that it was the books he red. Sasuke knew better. He had seen the looks the village gave the blond, despite not inquiring why that was. He knew that in many ways the two of them were similar - forced to mature years before any child had the right to.

He knew that they were broken. In different ways, but still broken.

He knew equally well that some of the damage was being repaired.

After all, some nights his sleep was uninterrupted.

Sasuke himself knew he had changed because of the boy. Not only skill-wise, but his disposition as well. He was less inclined to brood. He actually talked with people. He even let out a smile from time in time and traded jabs with the blond.

Maybe that was what a friend was.

XXXXX

Sakura looked at herself in the mirror with approval. She looked flawless. Even her forehead, the source of much teasing when she was a child, looked good.

Being a kunoichi demanded no less. Sasuke-kun demanded no less.

Those were the two things Sakura was most interested in - her career and the one she loved. Interestingly enough both held about the same importance to her, which was a bit strange for many of her classmates.

Sakura had entered the Academy mostly of inertia. She was the only child of a happily married, wealthy couple. In truth she had before her a life many would wish for - her future was secure, as her parents were successful merchants.

In fact, the only reason she had even considered entering the Academy was because Yamanaka Ino did.

Her longtime friend turned rival was an inspiration to her as a child. She was strong and confident and she had helped her when Sakura needed her most. And yet that inspiration and even slight awe had quickly turned in something ugly - jealousy.

Sakura was normal. Sakura was plain. Sakura knew what life had in store for her and it was terribly mundane.

Ino was driven. Ino could easily be pinpointed in a crowd. Ino also knew what future had in store for her.

The two were like the two sides of a coin - one living in the normal world and the other in the reality of the shinobi.

And one day, Sakura woke up and found herself wanting more.

She enrolled in the Academy, hoping to prove to herself that she could prosper in a world that was essentially alien. Hoping to prove that she was as good as Ino.

Hoping to prove that she was deserving of her friendship.

But with time her reasons became twisted. She, like most of the class, few for the Uchiha survivor. That single fact had made her brake of the oldest friendship she had. If she had allowed herself to think about it, she would have probably resented Sasuke for standing between her and Ino.

She did not.

And now she was standing here, before the mirror, trying to look perfect, as all kunoichi somehow did, hoping beyond hope to be in the same team as her Sasuke-kun, so that she could prove to him that she was more than a love-struck girl.

In time, that is. It was really hard to think straight with the object of your fixation right in front of you.

If she allowed herself to doubt, which she did not, for fear of ruining her hard earned confidence, she would have doubted how prepared she was for the shinobi world.

She knew no pain, no hardship. She was innocent.

At least someone in the village was.

She was not strong, nor skilled, nor fast. She had no shinobi history.

In fact the only thing that she had was her mind. Her mind and her goals.

Some say that the mind is a powerful weapon. They were partially right. The mind was powerful, when used properly.

And that was what she was going to do.

XXXXXX

Naruto was one of the first to arrive in the Academy, eager to get the day going. Not surprisingly, Iruka was already there, going through stacks of paper as if he was possessed. When the door opened he smiled fondly to Naruto and received a smile from him in return.

The blond made his way through the room, nodding to the occasional familiar face, stopping only to greet Kiba and to give a small bow to Hyuuga Hinata. After blushing and hesitating for a second, as was normal for the shy girl, the bow was returned and Naruto continued further in the room finally stopping at the last row of seats.

As minutes passed, genin hopefuls began to fill the room. Incidentally the class started conversation with each other making for constant background chatter. Naruto, personally, found it relaxing despite his lack of participation.

Speculation on topics ranging from who would be pared with whom to small lagers on who would get the "Rookie of the year". Naruto could not stop a small chuckle from escaping from him when he heard that particular topic. It seemed that despite his aloof attitude, or maybe because of it, Sasuke was as popular as ever. That particular fact never seized to amuse the blond and to embarrass the Uchiha.

He really did not appreciate the attention.

And speaking of the devil, the raven headed boy entered the room, pointedly ignoring everyone, his eyes searching for Naruto in the crowd. All conversation briefly stopped at his entrance, only to resume quickly when he made his way towards the only one in the class who seemed to break him out of his shell.

"Naruto." The boy greeting briefly.

"Sasuke." The blond returning the greeting just as briefly.

And that was that. Without any more ceremonies the raven headed youth sat down and stared intently forward.

A couple of minutes afterwards a rumbling sound came from the hallway. Naruto palmed his face, while Sasuke rolled his eyes. In the years they had spent in the Academy, they had learned what made such noise.

As expected, the door burst open, revealing the Yamanaka heir and the pink haired Haruno. The two were arguing, very loudly, about who had managed to get to the room first.

It did not escape Naruto's notice that they were actually one of the last to make it to the gathering.

After glaring at each other for the last time, the two, in an odd synchronicity, scanned the room for their beloved, who was currently surrounded by no less than 5 girls, trying to start a conversation with him.

Obviously coming to the same conclusion that that was unacceptable, the two, still synchronizing their every step made their way to the crowd, roughly scattering it.

The relief that passed over Sasuke's face was subtle. Naruto patted him on the shoulder while desperately trying not to mock his friend's girl problem.

The two girls, now out of whatever mode they used to scatter the opposition glared at each other again, then at the one free seat. And at each other again. And at Naruto for good measure.

Naruto himself shrugged, with the small smile he always seemed to wear, as to deny any guilt in the situation. It did not work.

Suddenly Haruno sat down in the empty seat, greeting the Uchiha with a very excited "Good morning Sasuke-kun!"

"Hn." the boy answered. After long years of being exposed to the generally easygoing Naruto, he had started to actually acknowledge people when they greeted him. Even if they annoyed him.

Not willing to be left behind, the Yamanaka used the same greeting adding a hopeful "Would you want to have lunch after we finish here?"

Looking as impassive as ever Sasuke flatly answered "No."

That led to Ino's visible diminishing mood.

Grinning at the small victory over her rival, Sakura was about to ask the same question only to be interrupted by Naruto.

"Don't bother Haruno-san. He will say no." he declared, nodding his head wisely for emphasis.

"And how do you know that Naruto?" the pink haired girl asked hotly, annoyed at her attempt of getting a date getting shot down so blatantly by an outsider.

"I know him much better than you, ergo I can predict his reactions" Naruto said without batting an eyelash. "Also I do not know you well enough to talk to you in such a familiar way, I'm sure."

Sakura slightly flinched at both the declarations, while Ino visibly brightened.

"See Forehead? Sasuke-kun didn't accept my proposal because he didn't want you to feel bad." the Yamanaka declared hotly "He's so considerate!" She added with what could be described only as pure adoration radiating from her voice.

Another argument quickly followed, making Sasuke stiffen a grow and Naruto openly laughing at his friends misery.

It was good to be unpopular sometimes.

XXXXXX

Sometime later, Iruka managed to calm the class enough so that his voice could actually be heard.

"Ahem. Now that everyone can hear me, it is time for you to learn your team compositions and the name of your jounin sensei."

At this proclamation the entire class stopped any leftover conversation, concentrating its collective attention on the chūnin teacher in front of them.

If only they were so always so attentive, a teacher's life would be filled with joy.

"Now then. Team 1..."

At this point, Naruto trailed off, not really interested in most of the people in the room. Honestly he kept an ear out for his and Sasuke's name only. All others were mostly irrelevant. He would work with them and he would get along with them, but that was in the future. Right now he looked out only for himself and his friend.

Finally, after a tedious 10 minutes of name calling and subsequent sounds of disappointment or happiness Iruka finally caught Naruto's attention again.

"Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. Your jounin-sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma."

A would whoop of joy came from Sakura as she heard that she was on the same team with her Sasuke-kun. For her, this was obviously fate, telling her that everything would be alright in the end.

The joy she felt quickly degenerated to petty bickering with Ino again.

While this was going on Naruto and Sasuke shared a smile, glad at being placed on the same team, each sure in the other's skill. Sasuke shot a distasteful look at the pink haired girl besides him, but Naruto shrugged nonchalantly.

"Don't worry Sasuke. We'll bring her up to speed. It shouldn't be that hard with... our... sensei's ... help..." Naruto trailed off, finally assimilating the name of his Jounin-sensei.

Iruka made Sakura and Ino stop arguing, making both of them flush brightly and continued reading out the list.

Naruto was staring wide-eyed at nothing, not noticing the concerned look Sasuke was giving him.

Sarutobi Asuma. He actually got the jiji's son as a sensei. Why hadn't he told him? Damn that old man and his love for riddles...

Sasuke was still looking at his friend, the question practically written on his face. Naruto tuned to him, mouthing later, receiving a nod in affirmation.

The blond boy turned his attention back to Iruka just in time to hear him finish listing the last team.

"And that's that for the teams. Now for something more personal. I, as your teacher, am extremely proud of all of you. I hope you continue to grow in the future and make me proud." the teacher finished his speech with a genuine smile. The whole class returned the smile, all of them loving the tough but dedicated teacher.

"Now I would like to ask you to wait here for your jounin-sensei. All of them should come shortly. Good luck." With those words he made his exit.

Excited chatter started again in the room, everyone speculating on what each sensei was like. Teams started bunching together and everyone waited for their instructor.

One by one different jounin entered the room and collected their team. More space seemed to open up with each minute.

Finally, after about 15 minutes of waiting, the door opened revealing two figures walking together. One of them was a young, beautiful woman, wrapped in some weird looking dress made of overlapping pieces of black and white cloth. Underneath it she wore a mesh shirt with one red sleeve. Her hands and forearms, as well as her tights were wrapped in bandages. She wore her forehead protector in its place. By far the most unusual trait she possessed were her red eyes, which gave her an exotic quality.

The other man wore the traditional Konoha shinobi outfit, sleeves rolled up, complete with chūnin vest. He had a well-kept beard and hair, kept back by his forehead protector. He wore a red sash with the kanji for fire written on it. A pair of black bangles dangled on his wrists and two strips of bandages were rolled around his upper arms. There was a cigarette in his mouth, leaving smoke trailing behind him.

The two jounin were talking with obvious familiarity. Once they entered the room, both of them stopped their conversation. With a wave of the man's arm the woman stepped forward.

"Team 8? My name is Yuhi Kurenai. Please follow me."

In quick order Kiba, Hinata and the Aburame heir made their way to the jounin and followed her out of the room.

After following his colleague with a wistful expression, the man, still happily puffing on his cigarette, stepped forward.

"Alright, team 7? You're my kids. Let's go."

He waited for the 3 children to come close and started walking out of the door, mumbling something about annoying teachers not letting him smoke inside. The three followed him out, Sakura glaring at the cigarette all the way. 

XXXXXX

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello again! This is the next chapter in the story, obviously.**

**Still looking for someone to beta this for me (and someone to bounce ideas off). If anyone is interested, feel free to contact me.**

**Not much to say about the chapter itself, mostly setting up things.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.  
>Cheers,<br>Simon**


	4. Genin?

Sarutobi Asuma walked the streets of Konoha, silently being followed by what could be called his genin team, cursing his father all the way.

The truth was he did not want a team. He had returned to active jounin duty a couple of years back and he did not feel quite in place in the village of his birth. The lingering tension in his family did not help matters.

But still, orders were orders. Can't argue with the Hokage, even if he does happen to be your dad. He'd test the brats and if they did well, he'd pass them. If not... well too bad for them.

He fished out another cigarette and looked at the kids behind him. They were all silent visibly lost in thought. He'd red their files, of course, but when it came to people he preferred to make his own observations.

The Uchiha kid looked as withdrawn and stoic as his psychological profile made him out to be. He was wearing white shorts and a dark blue t-shirt which bore the Uchiha fan, which was expected - he was the last of the clan after all. He also wore some sort of arm warmers, god knows why. He'd have to make him change them to forearm guards, they were at least practical. Asuma just hoped he was not hopelessly obsessed with getting revenge - that was a goal that could lead to many complications.

The Haruno girl wore her forehead protector as a hairband, which was somewhat strange in his opinion. On the other hand, she was civilian born, no doubt not ready for what the world was. He'd have to quickly open her eyes if she was ever going to get anywhere. Reportedly she was extremely intelligent, but if you looked at her clothes and the occasional look of adoration she sent Sasuke's way, one could not tell. She wore leggings that went up to her knees and a red dress, which was entirely too long. It probably made moving difficult. All in all she gave the impression of a normal girl, not a shinobi. That could be an advantage sometimes, but definitely not in this team.

Lastly, the Uzumaki. He knew his father was close to him, hell he was there when he gave him the ninjato that now rested on his small back. The boy was a walking paradox - his outfit was the most serious of the three and yet he wore a small smile that did not fall off his face. If Naruto's conversation with his father was any indication, he had a lighthearted attitude towards the world. And yet, he gave the impression of a born shinobi - black pants, wrapped in bandages at the ankles, a mesh shirt with a vest on top of it, his forehead protector, used as a bandana to hide his bright blonde hair and fingerless gloves with metal plates on the back, probably to provide better grip on his sword. Asuma really couldn't read the boy, which was ... unexpected.

Oh, yes and you couldn't forget that he was the jailor for the most powerful of the Bijū. Simply lovely.

Sometimes, he thought that his father enjoyed taking him through the grinder simply out of spite.

Just as Asuma finished his next cigarette, they reached the grassy clearing they were going to use today. He abruptly stopped and turned to his students.

"Alright, we're here"

XXXXX

Naruto stopped before his teacher to be, waiting for further instructions. The walk to here was tense, at least for them - they did not what to expect and the silence did not help with relieving their nerves. He was seriously considering doing something stupid, simply to relieve the tension, but decided against it. After all, it simply would not do to make a bad first impression.

"Usually at this point the team has a little heart to heart chat about their likes, dislikes dreams and so forth." Asuma said "But to be honest, I really don't care."

Without waiting to see their reaction, he continued "The truth is that there is an exam I am supposed to give you, to see if you have any promise as a team. If you don't, then well... too bad, you're going back to the Academy."

An outraged cry came from Sakura. He could send them back to the Academy? But why? They had passed the exam, they had their forehead protectors, weren't they shinobi? Naruto and Sasuke's reactions were not so extreme, but similar thoughts slam through their minds. The blonde was inwardly fuming at the Hokage for not telling him. Then he remembered how he had said that he was still technically not a genin and mentally slammed his head in a wall. Damn old men and their riddles...

Sasuke only narrowed his eyes at the jounin. He could not allow himself to be stopped here. He knew that he was still weak, but his brother waited and he could not spend another year in the Academy.

"Besides, I don't think you will pass." Asuma continued "In fact, I think you will fail miserably. So what's the point in learning thing about you?"

"But Asuma-san, Sasuke-kun and I had the highest scores in the Academy!" Sakura said.

Asuma looked at her for a moment, and then started laughing. The laugh was so long, that at one point Naruto was trying to remember if lungs can collapse from excessive mirth.

The jounin gradually stopped laughing, wiping a tear from his eye in the process. He straightened up and then he _moved._

Before the genin could react he was behind Sakura with a like looking trench knife at her throat.

"And this, pinkie, is the amount of care anyone on the field will have for your scores." he said, his voice barely a whisper "If you don't realize that soon, you will die and there is nothing anyone can do about it."

Asuma removed his knife from her throat and resumed his position in front of them. He casually drew a new cigarette, lighting it, his potential pupils tracing his every move like cats chasing a light. He took a long draw, exhaled a huge puff of smoke and suddenly smiled. All 3 of the kids flinched.

This was not a smile you'd want to see on someone who was testing you.

"Okay, brats, here's how we'll do this. Each of you will fight me. Let's see how good your skills are." he seemed to think for a moment and then pointed at Sasuke "Let's see how the rookie of the year will do."

The Uchiha started moving to the center of the clearing, when Asuma, as if he just remembered it added "By the way, don't hold back. Aim to kill. God knows you're not going to touch me, but at least make a good show out of it, eh?"

Sasuke did not answer, but his look visibly darkened. He knew that there was absolutely no way of winning - a jounin was so far beyond his skills it was not even funny. But still he refused to just give up. Dropping in a combat stance, he carefully considered his options.

Taijutsu? Not a great idea on its own. He was proficient in his family style, mostly thanks to Naruto's help, but close quarter fights were not really his thing.

Genjutsu? Not his thing - he could somewhat escape and detect them, but he didn't know any techniques.

That left ninjutsu. He knew that it was his best field, but he'd have to do this carefully...

Sasuke palmed 5 shuriken and threw them at Asuma without any warning. The moment they left his hand he was on the move, sprinting in a circle around the still immobile Asuma.

The jounin, at the last possible moment, drew a kunai of his own and reflected the shuriken to the side with sickening ease. He turned to follow the boy, still refusing to move from his spot, noting that the boy had decent speed.

Sasuke was not pushing himself, testing out the reactions of his future sensei with the shuriken throws. When he saw him not moving he threw another 5 shuriken, much to the same result. That meant that Asuma would probably stay there until he had to.

Well, now was a good time to make him have to.

While on the move, Sasuke started making hand seals, abruptly stopping just before his jutsu was complete.

Asuma looked on with interest, curious what the little genin would do. His eyes suddenly widened when he recognized the seal sequence and prepared to jump back.

"Fire release: Grand Fireball!" the Uchiha yelled out, taking a deep breath and spraying fire out of his mouth.

Sasuke noticed that his teacher was going to dodge, quickly threw a wide spray of kunai, hoping to at least hit him, all the while trying to think what to do next.

Asuma noticed that the jutsu was cut and the sound of kunai flying through the air and flashed through his own hand seals.

"Wind release: Wind Gale!"

A sudden wave of air pushed the kunai away and made Sasuke take a step back to keep his balance. The two shinobi stared at each other, a circle of burned grass between them.

Sasuke rushed Asuma going into an elaborate taijutsu combination, but without much hope for success. He was hoping for an opening.

The jounin blocked the boy's attempts with amusement. The Uchiha wasn't bad, but his style was obvious and telegraphed, not to mention that he seemed to keep his right hand free for whatever reason. It was obvious the Uchiha was looking for an opening, so Asuma humored him, leaving his ribs open for a moment, curious what he had under his sleeve.

Sasuke lashed out with his right hand, surprisingly with an open palm. The moment he connected he jumped back as far as he could, creating distance.

A moment later a huge explosion bloomed where the jounin stood. Sasuke smirked. He knew that the opening was intentional, but he couldn't have expected him to have hidden a tag in his right hand.

He did tell him to go for the kill, right?

The explosion slowly set, leaving a crater where the jounin used to be. A piece of burned wood fell flew next to Sasuke's face, making his eyes widen in understanding.

He felt a kunai at his neck and a puff of smoke surrounded his head.

"I'd say that was a good try, but I'd be lying. And you're supposed to be the rookie of the year? The standards must have really plummeted since I left, this is embarrassing." Asuma said loud enough for the other two to hear.

Sakura instantly bristled at the jab at her Sasuke-kun. She heard Naruto snickering and turned to throw a venom filled look at him. Both reactions were expected.

The unexpected reaction came from Sasuke himself. Instead of instantly trying to wash out, he simply nodded, careful not to hurt himself on the kunai, making Asuma smirk. The brat could be taught.

He removed the kunai from his neck, motioning for him to go to his teammates. The Uchiha sat down next to Naruto, pointedly ignoring the congratulations coming from the only girl in the clearing. The two started talking about the fight and where Sasuke had made mistakes, further surprising the jounin. Hell, this team might actually work.

"Haruno, you're up next. Let's see what the top kunoichi of the year can do, eh?"

Sakura brightened at the reminder of her score in the Academy - it was something she was very proud of. She shot up and went to the middle of the clearing, where the Uchiha had started his battle.

She really hoped she would make a good impression, especially after what Sasuke-kun had done.

Luckily for her self-confidence, she did not see the look that the two boys on the team exchanged. The disregard for her skill was more than obvious. The moment passed in a second, but Asuma noticed it. He really hoped that Sakura surprised him too.

The Haruno stood in front of the jounin. When he motioned for her to start, she ran straight for him, throwing two shuriken at the man. While he dodged both of them, she started making hand seals, which Asuma recognized as the Bunshin no Jutsu.

Two Sakura's materialized besides her and started changing places. Asuma simply raised an eyebrow, surprised that the girl actually thought that could work. Maybe if she had used more clones it could have worked against someone else, but really? Against a jounin?

Sakura attacked him, using the standard Academy taijutsu, which Asuma easily dealt with. Finally he decided to end the spar and threw a kick at her midsection. The girl saw the move coming and managed to use Kawarimi in time, switching with a log behind the jounin. She tried throwing more shuriken at him, grabbing a kunai in her right hand to use in close combat, charging him again.

Asuma, who was sure that had seen what she was capable of, simply dodged the assault and hit the girl on the chin with enough power to knock her out for a short while. Sakura few to the ground instantly, but woke up about 5 seconds later. She was mortified that she had lost so easily. The jounin was sure to return her to the Academy, away from Sasuke. And what would Ino think?

Simply put, this was quickly turning in the most horrible day in the girl's life.

She slowly made her way to her teammates, sitting on a log, clearly depressed.

All in all, it was what Asuma expected. The girl had good chakra control and a normal for a civilian reserve. Her taijutsu wasn't anything spectacular, her weapon skill weren't either, which was expected, since she didn't belong to a clan. That was actually a good thing - she was a clear state and could be shaped in whatever was needed for the team and if the reports for her intelligence were true, that would make her a valuable asset.

Simply put, he was pleased with his team so far.

That left only Naruto. He had tried asking his father about his skills, but he had simply smiled his infuriating knowing smile and told him to see for himself. His Academy reports were nothing all that great - he seemed to do very good on practicals and decently on written examinations. And his personal files were largely classified, since he was the Kyuubi Jinchūriki. Combine that with how impossible he found it to read him and only one thing became clear.

The boy was something of a mystery.

Naruto made his way to the center of the clearing, not waiting for the obvious call. He pulled out his ninjato of its sheath, making Asuma come out of his mussing.

"Okay, Uzumaki, your last. I can't say much about the performance of your teammates, so to be honest I'm not expecting much from you either. But, hey, go wild." the jounin said after, seeing the naked blade, pulled out his own trench knifes and put them on his knuckles.

"But Asuma-san, if you don't expect much, surely you don't have to use those things? After all, I am far below the great Rookie of the Year." Naruto said, throwing a mocking look at the Uchiha. Sasuke simply glared at the jab. Sometimes the blond was simply put, annoying.

"Now, now, Uzumaki let me have my fun. There aren't that many people who use weapons around here after all."

The boy broke into a grin, nodding at the point. He stood sideways, his left hand in front of him, his right holding the blade behind him. He crouched down slightly.

And then his face lost all expression and it was like a dam breaking.

Sakura actually fell down, Sasuke, despite having regularly fought with the boy flinched and Asuma gaped.

He had faced much stronger killing intent of course, but for this level of bloodlust to come from a simple child? It was unheard of.

Without giving him time to think, the blond dashed forward, his blade still trailing behind him. Reaching the jounin, he started a quick succession of slashes with his sword, which were all dodged by the older man.

Naruto continued the barrage, using only his weapon. Finally a sideways slash had a chance to hit the jounin, but the attack was blocked by his right trench knife. The moment Naruto felt the steel clashing, he let Asuma push his blade away, going with the motion, adding the momentum to a side kick aimed at the opponents ribs.

The move caught Asuma by surprise, making him block with his other hand. Naruto pressed his attack, now mixing slashes with the ninjato with the occasional kick and punch from his free hand. None of the hits were very powerful, but the speed was definitely good and whenever there was even the slightest opening Naruto went for killing blows with the blade.

Asuma caught the ninjato between his trench knifes and pushed Naruto away. The blond used the space to make a Kawarimi switching with a log behind Asuma. As quickly as he could, he made a hand seal and switched his ninjato to his left hand. The blade blurred out of view and an identical copy could be seen in his right hand. The illusion was far from perfect - a slight shimmer could be seen whenever his real blade moved and he had no doubt it wasn't going to work, but he felt obliged to try.

Naruto quickly rushed the jounin again, making for an exaggerated slashing motion with his right hand, hoping to catch the attention of his opponent. When Asuma went to block the blade, he made his move with his right hand aiming between the ribs of the jounin.

Asuma noticed the slight shimmer that the blade left in its bath and far quicker than the boy could react blocked it and kicked him away. Following the boy he pinned him to the ground with a trench knife on his throat and his other hand holding his right hand down.

Naruto saw his situation and his expression instantly returned to the pleasant smile he always wore. Asuma frowned slightly and stood up, giving a hand to the blond.

He was surprised all right.

His sword skills weren't bad and the style he used was something he hadn't seen many times. He was obviously ambidextrous, or had at least trained himself to use his left hand as well as his right. And that genjutsu was decent, especially considering that he had to have worked it out alone. But by far the most interesting was his killing intent. It was completely unexpected and out of character for the always smiling and easy going boy. Strangely enough it was completely appropriate for his other face - the emotionless mask he wore when fighting.

He needed to talk with his father after this.

But that was a concern for later. Right now, he had work to do. The jounin turned to the children who were sitting near each other again. Sasuke and Naruto were staring at him expectedly, one with a stoic expression, the other with a smile. Sakura on the other hand was looking at the blond, obviously still shaken from the killing intent.

"You lost brats. You lost bad." Asuma said, extinguishing his cigarette "And in our world to lose means death. Shinobi walk the line between life and death every day, in every battle, in every mission. And if you ever want to be shinobi you must learn that."

"All posturing aside, you did well. Better than most actually. And it wasn't enough. Now, after we've fought, how do you think you'd be able to defeat me?"

Asuma looked at the children, looking grave.

They looked back and quickly ducked their heads. All three of the genin started thinking of an answer, instinctively understanding that this was the real question. The first to raise her head was Sakura.

"A better strategy?" she asked timidly.

"Yes, a better strategy could have helped, but more than likely, against me, it would not have helped. Right now we're on a completely different scale."

His words made the girl deflate instantly and Asuma knew that he'd have to take special care for her to find her place in the world. The blond was the next to raise his head.

"Information." Naruto said instantly. He knew that information revealed weaknesses, weaknesses that could be exploited.

"Again, yes it would help, and no, it probably wouldn't be enough."

Sasuke was still thinking. His first instinct was to answer power - he knew that he could become powerful, his training with Naruto had shown him that, but that required time and the question was about how he would defeat the jounin now.

After a minute of complete silence, everyone in the clearing was staring at him, waiting for his answer.

His mind drifted through his memories, desperately looking for an answer. He remembered the first day at the Academy and the speech and how ridiculous it sounded to him. He remembered meeting and training with Naruto. He remembered how the two helped each other when they were struggling with something. And suddenly it all clicked.

"Teamwork." he said slowly rising his head. When no answer came, he continued his explanation "If the three of us came at you together Naruto could have possibly slipped a strike at you. It's not certain, but it could have worked."

At this Asuma eased into a genuine smile. "Exactly. Information and strategy are both important. But what makes victory possible is having someone to keep your back safe."

"Do you know why shinobi villages were created?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer he continued "It was because a shinobi lived a life of deception. You couldn't trust anyone. Everyone could turn in an enemy in a blink of the eye. The world is largely the same - todays allies could be tomorrow's foe. The only exception is the village and the shinobi in it."

"The truth is the moment you become shinobi, you start living in another world. And your only friends in that world are the other shinobi of your village."

The three were slowly nodding at his world, each finding a different meaning in them and relating them to their lives.

"That is the reason why you are placed in teams. So that when you fail, there is someone to pick you up." Asuma continued "Remember that and live it."

Asuma stopped talking, waiting for the children to assimilate the information. He pulled out another cigarette, took a deep drag and exhaled.

"This is especially important for the three of you." the jounin continued "This year there are 3 teams that are expected to pass. Team 8 is one of them, team 10 is another and you, team 7."

"Each of the teams is constructed with a purpose. Team 8 is expected to participate in tracking, retrieval and information gathering missions. Team 10 will specialize in in infiltration, capture and assassination. And the three of you are expected to participate in heavy combat missions."

"You will be the first to fight, trust in the middle of the enemy forces. You will be the last to retreat, covering your comrades' escape. In many ways, you will be the the ones who will be the most responsible for the safety of the village. You will face more death than any of your classmates. And it is my job to ensure you survive it."

The reactions in the genin were different. Sasuke looked simply giddy. This was exactly what he wanted, what he needed. Here he would become strong, strong enough to fulfill his goals. Naruto looked impassive, having expected something like that when he and Sasuke were put on the same team. Sakura looked simply scared. Today, looking at the two boys and Asuma, she had realized that she was weak and she didn't like the feeling. But she didn't know what to do about it.

"I have only one more question for you." Asuma said after a lengthy silence "Do you think you are ready?"

Sasuke and Naruto instantly nodded with fire in their eyes. After looking at the two boys and the jounin, Sakura's face shifted from fear to determination. She also nodded.

Asuma smiled at the three.

They were good kids.

And they would become strong.

"Well then." Asuma said "Stand up."

The three stood, tension evident in their bodies.

"You pass."

"Now let's quit it with the dreary stuff and grab something to eat, eh?" the jounin said with a wink.

The three fell flat on their face, tripping in their own feet, the impromptu change in attitude in their sensei, being a bit too much for them.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello and welcome to the next installment in my story, same , relatively the same time.**

**Has4uall: Now that would be telling won't it? Next chapter I will show where the three of them are aiming, skill wise, so there's that. Other than that, no, Naruto is not getting into seals; I have different plans for him. Sakura will be using seals, but this is much later in the story.**


	5. The Chase

The newly formed Team 7 of Konoha walked side by side. While this in itself is not strange, the argument they were in the middle of was most definitely such.

"Wait, wait, wait." said Asuma pointing at Naruto "you want to skip out on this meeting?"

Patiently, as if he has said the same thing a hundred times before, which he had, Naruto answered "Yes."

"Even though I'm treating you to dinner?"

"Yes."

"And it's an official meeting with your team."

"Exactly."

Asuma slowly massaged his temple, turning to the other two members of his team.

"Do you know why he's like that?" he asked them.

Sasuke quickly looked at Naruto, who shook his head. Returning his attention to Asuma, he just shrugged and continued walking. He was never one for words.

The jounin noticed the look though.

He turned to Sakura and looked at her expectedly. Not surprisingly, she hadn't noticed his look, to busy staring longingly at the object of her desires. He actually had to cough to get her attention and repeat her question.

Something told him that if it were any other time, they would not hear the end of it from the blond boy next to him.

"Well, I really don't know Naruto that well..." Sakura said thoughtfully "Actually no one really did. He never used to hang out with anyone in school. Now that I think about it I've seen him talk regularly only with Sasuke-kun, Shino and Kiba. I guess he doesn't like people?"

"As amusing as this look into my psyche was" Naruto cut in, his words dripping with sarcasm "I'd appreciate if you did not talk as if I weren't here."

Sakura quickly reddened and Asuma scratched his head sheepishly.

"Sorry Naruto, but you aren't talking and I hate unknowns."

Naruto actually smirked mumbling something sounding suspiciously similar to 'the unknown kills".

"Why don't you want to come anyway Naruto?" asked Sakura, quickly getting over her embarrassment "If Asuma-sensei says we have to go, you have to listen to him! He's our sensei!"

"Thank you Haruno-san, for stating the obvious, your remarks are appreciated." Naruto answered, making Sakura twitch with annoyance. His permanent smile did not help her temper.

"The truth is, I have never been in a restaurant and I am not eager to go to one." the blond said with an air of finality in his words.

"Blondie here isn't really well liked around the village." Sasuke answered, making everyone turn to him "But, to be fair, he doesn't really like most people either" he continued smirking towards the blond, who, smile and all, flipped him the bird, making the Uchiha actually grin.

When she finished drooling at the sight of the rookie of the year, Sakura turned to her teammate in wonder. Why didn't the people like him anyway? She vaguely remembered her parents telling her to stay away from him when she was a child, but she hadn't really seen anything that would make them ... say ... that.

Suddenly she remembered the feeling she got when he fought Asuma. The very thought made her flinch instinctively. The feeling was very similar to having a blade pressed to her neck. In that brief instant, she felt that she was dead. When, where or how were irrelevant, but her death was certain.

It was then that Sakura realized she didn't really know the blond boy. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to.

Asuma, on the other hand, had much different thoughts. He knew who and what the boy was, even if Naruto himself didn't. He also knew his father dotted on the boy, protecting him whenever he could. But obviously the Hokage's power was not infinite if the boy was not welcome in a simple restaurant.

Well, no matter. It was his responsibility now and he would take care of hit.

They were his little soldiers now, after all.

"Sorry, Naruto, but the meeting is mandatory." Asuma said, coming out of his musings "We have to talk about a couple of things concerning the team and how you are going to progress from here on."

Slowly with visible reluctance Naruto nodded.

Some time later, the four found themselves in a BBQ restaurant. The team got a table and sat down, without conversing, each looking at the menu.

Naruto was nervous. He didn't really project it much, his smile was still in place and he seemed completely calm. Only the occasional glance at the waiter and Sasuke showed that he felt discomfort.

Sasuke himself felt bad for his friend, but really, there wasn't anything he could do. He was technically a clan head, yes, but that didn't mean anything due to his age. He couldn't change the way people saw Naruto. Hell, he didn't know what people saw in the blond. He'd even feel a bit left out, if it weren't for the fact that the boy himself didn't seem to know.

Asuma knew that there was going to be a commotion and tensed, careful not to be noticed by his students. It just wouldn't do for them to see him nervous for a simple confrontation with a civilian.

He really hated those.

Sakura was blissfully unaware of the world, ecstatic that she was actually eating with Sasuke.

When everyone put down their menus, the waiter came to take their order. Naruto ducked his head, hoping beyond hope not to be recognized.

"Good evening, what would you like... to... order..." the man said looking at Naruto and starting to frown.

"I'm sorry but we do not serve... that boy here." the man said clearly displeased with the blond's presence.

Naruto looked at Asuma, somehow conveying "I told you so" and began getting up, not willing to cause problems for his teammates.

The jounin sighed and turned to the waiter, releasing a subtle killing intent aimed at the man.

"Care to repeat that? You aren't serving my pupil here?" Asuma said, sounding completely calm and slowly increasing the amount of killing intent he was leaking.

"I'm sure that you wouldn't turn back a paying customer, especially when he is a shinobi of the leaf..." he said, the threat in his words clear.

The waiter nodded shakily, not trusting his voice. He was a simple man, not used to the level of killing intent the man before him released. He was told that the boy was not to be served and he would usually do as he's told. But the threat of imminent and potentially painful death, currently outweighed the order he was given.

He got the team's orders as quickly as he could and made for the kitchen, far away from murderous shinobi.

Sometimes it sucked living in a hidden village.

About 10 minutes of tedious silence passed, broken only when Sakura attempted to start a conversation with someone, more often than not Sasuke, on the table. Despite feeling bad for causing trouble, Naruto enjoyed rubbing in his fan girl free status in the Uchiha's face. When the food came, brought by the still scared waiter, did actual conversation start.

"OK, guys, now that we actually have food in front of us, we can get started." Asuma said, as he started poking his dish "What we really need to talk about right now, is who will do what in the team."

And just like that, he could see that he had the genins' complete and undivided attention. At least they were taking this seriously. Maybe he didn't ham it up that much with the speech he gave them at the training ground. God he hated those.

"As I said before, you will be the only purely combat oriented team in your age group." the jounin said "That means that you must be prepared for combat by the time I take you on your first C-rank mission, which will be in around a month."

At this all three genin reacted with various degrees of surprise. Naruto raised an eyebrow, Sasuke actually lost his stoic mask and Sakura literally gaped. It was with good reason too. It was almost unheard of for genin to go on anything above D-rank missions before at least their second month of service.

"But Asuma-sensei, why do we have to go on a C-rank mission so early?" Sakura asked, feeling somewhat scared. She really didn't have the confidence that she would be prepared for combat in one month, especially if her fight with the jounin was anything to go by.

"Don't worry Sakura. There's a reason for that. You're a bit of a special team." the jounin started explaining "You are expected to deal with missions which put you directly in harm's way, as fast as possible. And when I say that it's expected of you, I mean that the Hokage and the council expect it of you."

In truth it was the councils demand. His father would have liked to give them more time to prepare, but it wasn't to be. More often than not, the council has nothing to do with the way teams are placed. But when they took in account that the last loyal Uchiha and the Kyuubi Jinchūriki were graduating together, it was too much to pass up. The clan heads petitioned for them to be put on the same team so as to show the world that Konoha was still going strong. The Haruno was put there almost as an afterthought, due to her potential in the medical arts and her intelligence.

"Having said that, the next month is going to be very busy for you three." the jounin continued "You will not be doing D-ranked missions..." the man paused, eyeing the looks of pure joy that ran across all of his students. D-rank missions were something of a bane to every potential genin, talked of in whispers of horrible boredom. They had their purpose, of course, but everyone hated them. Not having to do them probably came as an early birthday present to them.

Asuma too had hated the missions with a passion and was a bit sore that his team wouldn't have to go through them, with him laughing all the way.

"Instead you will be training." he said with a smile of pure evil "You will be training hard."

That had the expected effect, dismay and even a bit of fear, from Sakura only. The two boys were, if anything, even happier.

Training freaks both of them; he'd introduce them to Guy sometime, as a cautioning tale.

Shaking his head slightly, he continued his explanation "In the morning all three of you will be doing physical conditioning, chakra control exercises, meditation and stealth. This will serve to increase your basic capabilities, as well as your chakra reserves."

Almost as a second thought he turned to Sakura and Sasuke "On that note, I will need you to change your wardrobe a bit, especially you Sakura."

The girl shot him a look of pure outrage, but kept her thoughts to herself. Good, good, he'd make a kunoichi of her yet.

The two boys, on the other hand, seemed unimpressed, showing him that they were already doing similar training on their own. Despite this being a good thing in the long run, he vowed to make them hate him with a passion at the end of the month.

Maybe he had to meet with Guy and ask for some tips...

"In the afternoon you will be doing specialized training. After reading over your records, as well as seeing you in action in our spars, I have a pretty good idea where each of you would excel the most."

This managed to catch the children's attention again. Sasuke and Naruto looked at their sensei intently, while Sakura started to fidget a bit. She wasn't used to training that much. Sure her practicals were good, but way below both of the boys. She exceled in academia and was quickly coming to realize that it was only so much she could do with that in reality.

Seeing the uncertain look of the girl, Asuma turned to her first.

"Sakura. Extreme intelligence, basic taijutsu, good projectile weapon usage, exceptional chakra control. Your main position in the team will be a combat medic. You will be able to hold your own in a battle, but your main concern will be keeping your team and yourself alive." the pink haired girl visibly perked up at his explanation and the two boys eyed her speculatively "It is in a way, the most important position in the team. Live up to it."

Sakura nodded, her resolve to do well renewed. She would keep her teammates alive.

She wouldn't be useless.

The jounin smiled at the girl and turned to the last Uchiha. He had the biggest problem with deciding what to do with the boy. It was not for a lack of skill, of course. He was, after all, a genius. It was the exact opposite actually. With his sharingan, he had the potential to excel in any of the basic field. But one of them overwhelmed the others in usefulness, especially in this particular cell.

"Sasuke. Very developed chakra reserves for your age, above average in all of the basic fields, average chakra control. And of course, the Sharingan." at the mention of his bloodline, the boy smirked, turning to Naruto, who just rolled his eyes. It was a running joke between them that the Uchiha would blow Naruto out of the water the moment he unlocked his eyes. Naruto didn't buy it though. The sharingan was a tool like any other. Without the skills to utilize it, it was useless.

He often told himself that. He really didn't like losing.

"When you unlock your Sharingan you have the potential to master a limitless amount of ninjutsu. That's why you will be learning both offensive and defensive jutsu from every element and working further on your reserves."

Sasuke nodded to himself, looking thoughtful. From his free spars with Naruto, he knew that he won only when he managed to keep his distance and utilize his elemental ninjutsu. Naruto was just too unpredictable and deadly in close range, despite the boy's claims that his personal style was far from complete. Honestly, the only downside he could see was that he was never going to hear the end of it from the blond, who considered most ninjutsu quote unquote flashy.

Damn the whiskered boy and his inability to drop a potentially funny subject.

Naruto himself was splitting his attention equally between his sensei, because he was the next one to have his training explained and thinking of new and exciting ways to bug Sasuke, his favorite past time.

Sometimes he wondered when he would cross the line and make his teammate shove something through his chest.

Eh, not anytime soon. And he'd still make fun of him for it.

The jounin turned to the quietly sniggering boy, snapping him out of his thoughts "Naruto. Exceptional chakra reserves, above average practicals, and very good chakra control. But, from the spar, I'd wager that you were holding up on the Academy a bit. That goes for you too Sasuke, but it's more obvious in Naruto." Asuma said, eyeing the blade on Naruto's waist. "I'm guessing that your style is self-thought. Also you show a bit of an aptitude for genjutsu."

"Yes. Although, to be honest, I'm aiming for perception based genjutsu and minor ones at that." Naruto said. He was a shinobi and shinobi fought with deception. When the opponent had no control of his senses, he had no control over the battle.

Asuma raised his eyebrows. He was by no means an expert in genjutsu, but every jounin had to be at least competent in the field, bar a few exceptions. There were two general kinds of genjutsu, internal and external. Internal dealt directly with a targets perception of the world, boggling his senses, while the external created illusions. Both bended the senses, but did it in different ways. The difference was that the internal was generally less used, because it was harder to teach and use. He really didn't expect it out of a boy who could reportedly throw around ridiculous amounts of chakra around.

"I see. Well, we'll work on that, but it will require time. For now we will concentrate on polishing your style. I'll also have you pick up iaijutsu with a longer blade, so as to give you more options when fighting. You will be also working on an underused technique of enhancing the body with chakra. It requires a fair amount, something you have little trouble with, so it should be perfect for you." Asuma looked at the boy seriously, prompting the boy to drop his smile for once "Remember Naruto. You are your team's first line of defense. You are the most likely to come under fire. Never bite more than you can chew."

The boy nodded, looking completely serious. Naruto did not intend to throw his life away. He would do what he had to do and probably die in battle someday as was the fate of many. But he would make his life count. He would make the old man proud.

"Well then. That's all I had to say for tonight." Asuma said, all seriousness leaving him, making him look like the embodiment of relaxation "After we finish up here you can go home. Training starts at 8 sharp."

The rest of the dinner was uneventful. Small talk was exchanged, dinner finished, Sakura scorned by Sasuke, providing entertainment for Naruto and prompting Asuma on finding a way to stop the girls obsession before it truly became a problem.

The jounin paid the bill and made for the exit, closely followed by his team, enjoying the banter between Naruto and Sasuke and looking forward to a nice and relaxing night of sleep.

His hopes were quickly dashed when a non-descript chūnin appeared in front of him. The sudden appearance of the man made the children quiet down. Asuma on the other hand tensed visibly. Unexpected messages in a shinobi village were rarely good.

"Asuma-san, the Hokage tower has been breached!" the chūnin said, clearly agitated "Mizuki has stolen the Scroll of Sealing!"

The jounin visibly relaxed, to the shock of the chūnin. He knew his father kept the scroll in a completely different location. The one in the tower was a fake.

Turning to the chūnin, he nodded once and took out a new cigarette. "Very well, I will aid with the search. Dismissed."

The chūnin left just as quickly as he had come. Asuma took a deep breath of smoke and slowly exhaled turning to his team.

"Well, it seems we'll be having a bit of entertainment tonight. We'll aid with the search."

His words received different reactions.

Sakura looked slightly scared, but determined.

Sasuke actually grinned at the thought in participating in such a hunt so early in his carrier.

Naruto seemed confused, as if facing a difficult question without a visible answer.

Slowly his head rose up.

"Question." all attention turned to the boy "Who was Mizuki again?"

XXXXX

Four blurs could be seen jumping from branch to branch in one of the many forests surrounding Konoha.

Naruto was making every jump on autopilot. Every academy student quickly got this particular mode of transportation to perfection.

Jump. Wand. Jump. Wand.

Just ahead of him was his sensei. He wasn't entirely sure what to think of the man. He reminded him of the old man, all business one moment and completely at easy at the next. That wasn't really unexpected, seeing as they were father and son, but still the similarities were uncanny.

It was strange that he hadn't met the man before.

Still, he liked the jounin. He seemed competent, but that was to be expected - his lineage demanded no less. No, what really did it for him was the calming and reassuring feeling the man projected.

Again, the similarities between father and son were uncanny.

And, of course, there was their current predicament. Getting to participate in a hunt for a traitor as a newly formed team was something that would surely raise a few eyebrows when word got out, even if it was practically drilled in their head that they were the exception not the norm.

At least his career was off to a good start. Now only if he managed to keep himself alive. That was a fine goal for the evening.

A small smile still played on his lips though.

They had just entered the forest no more than five minutes ago. No one had spoken since then. Suddenly the silence was broken by Asuma, who abruptly stopped making Naruto stop mid motion.

"Some ground rules." Asuma said, in what Naruto started privately thinking as his mission disposition "You will stay with me at all times. You will not split up. If we actually find the traitor you will not engage. Just hand back and let me handle things. You are here to watch and watch only. Understood."

Naruto nodded together with the rest of the team. They all understood. They were chasing a chūnin, a shinobi that outclassed them as easily as Asuma outclassed the traitor himself. There would be no fighting for them tonight.

But they would experience, even from a distance, a true shinobi battle.

That is, if they could find the traitor, which was unlikely.

After his orders were acknowledged, the team continued their trek through the forest moving in a wide zigzag pattern, straining their senses for a trace of the traitor.

Something shifted in Naruto. He got a new feeling, one which he had learned to associate long ago, when he and Sasuke had started playing cards between their training sessions.

The Uchiha had a great poker face, no doubt the result of his distant personality and the constant annoyance that the girls battling for his attention posed. And yet he never seemed to be able to win.

Naruto was just too lucky, for the better or for worse.

Continuing jumping from branch to branch he called to his friend.

"Hey, Sasuke."

After receiving the usual grunt of acknowledgment he continued "500 ryo says that we find Mizuki."

The Uchiha paled and almost missed the branch he was aiming for, receiving a questioning look from Sakura who was traveling right next to him.

"Damn it, Naruto!" the boy shouted louder than he wanted to, further puzzling their pink haired teammate and even receiving the attention of the jounin.

"What's so bad about Naruto trying to make a bet?" Sakura asked, giving voice to her confusion.

To her surprise Sasuke actually turned to answer her. It spoke volumes of how annoyed he was with the blond at that moment. "Whenever that guy makes a bet, he wins. His luck is simply ridiculous!" he turned to the blond again, clearly on a roll not for the current bet or finding the traitor, but for a different matter entirely "How can you win every single hand when we play! That's simply impossible!"

Sakura gaped at the show of emotions in her crush. She had never seen him get so agitated about anything, let alone a couple of games of cards. He showed her a different, more childish side of himself at that moment. It was... strange to see him like that, completely different from the image she held in his mind.

Naruto on the other hand simply grinned and asked widening his eyes childishly "Aw, is Sasuke mad that I'm better than him at cards. Don't worry I'm sure you'll beat my skills someday, work at it!" he said shaking his fist at the sky.

Sasuke quickly calmed himself, already somewhat accustomed to the blonds teasing "Sure, skills. Never getting a losing hand is skills. Idiot."

Asuma simply chuckled to himself. It was good that his team seemed to get along so well. But really? Naruto had unbeatable luck? That was a childish belief if he ever saw one...

Crap. He heard sound of fighting.

The jounin motioned for the children to stop, quickly eyeing the still smiling blond. He'd have to look into this luck thing. The boy could make a pretty penny if he truly had the favor of the gods.

He motioned for the three to follow him as quietly as they could and made way to where the battle waged.

Naruto followed his sensei. Sakura looked at him incredulously, amazed that he was proven right so fast. She turned to Sasuke who gave her a deadpan look which said 'I told you so'.

The sounds of clashing kunai became louder. The team found themselves in a clearing in the forest, lit only by the moon. In the middle of it two shinobi, which Naruto recognized for Mizuki and Iruka war darting around each other, both of them holding kunai.

Both of the men seemed bloodied and there were kunai and shuriken spread around the clearing, including two huge ones, each imbedded in a tree.

The two figures clashed again. They seemed equally skilled, but Iruka seemed to have more cuts than his opponent. He was not yet overwhelmed, but it was very likely that he would eventually lose.

The two separated again, creating more distance this time, not noticing the new arrivals. Both were panting slightly, trying to regain their bearings. Iruka, while looking for any movement that indicated an attack, spoke.

"Why Mizuki? Why did you steal the scroll? Why did you turn your back on the village?"

Mizuki looked at the other chūnin in wonder and then started to laugh. It was not a joyous laugh. It sounded evil, mad.

It seemed that the good mannered and kind academy teacher was long gone.

The laugh slowly died down, leaving the man with an evil smile on his face.

"You ask me why, Iruka? Power." the man snarled at the teacher "Power rules our world. And here I can't achieve it. Konoha and its ideals are weak."

Naruto dropped his smile at that statement. He wanted nothing more than to go and prove it to the man that Konoha was anything but weak.

Before he could fully go down that train of thought Naruto clasped at his emotions burring them, but not erasing them, he could not do that even if he wanted to.

If he started leaking killing intent at the man now he would only show the teams position.

"But with this scroll and the techniques on it" the man continued, grinning fully now, the insanity written on his face sending shivers down his supposed friend's back "I could challenge even the Hokage, and win!"

That right there almost made Naruto reveal his position. It was truly an epic struggle not to laugh.

This guy? Challenge the old man? Even with whatever was on that scroll, it was laughable.

Jutsu was, after all, only a tool. And a tool was exactly as powerful as the one who used it.

Mizuki was not powerful.

Shaking his head sadly, Iruka whispered "You truly have fallen. I'm sorry Mizuki, but I will stop you."

The two dashed against each other again, words forgot, battle the only thing on their mind. Just before meeting in the center of the clearing, both of them jumped backward, their instincts screaming. A kunai imbedded itself in the ground between them, sinking far more than it should have.

Naruto turned to his sensei, who was not in the spot he occupied previously. The man had reviewed himself, casually walking into the clearing, lighting his cigarette, seemingly without a care in the world.

Seeing the man, Mizuki started sweating. He knew perfectly well who that was and he knew equally well that he could not compete with him right now. He franticly started looking for a way to escape.

"Don't bother." Asuma said puffing out smoke "You will not escape. I'm sure you and Ibiki will have much to speak of in the coming days."

Naruto made his way in the open, followed closely by his teammates, just as Mizuki was planning on making a final rush at the jounin, despite knowing the futility in his action. His eyes widened when he saw the blond and his face twisted in a gleeful look.

"Well, well, well. The demon child is here. His teammates too." the man laughed "You don't know how much I wanted to fail you in the final exam."

"Since I'm already dead anyway, might as well spread the good word." the man said "I wonder how they will react when they know that you are the..."

His speech was interrupted by a kunai sticking in his throat. Without anyone even noticing, Asuma had moved, plunging the blade in the traitor, silencing him.

"No more talking. We can't have you waving secrets in front of genin, now can we?" asked the jounin, not disturbed in the least from the gushing blood coming out of the traitors throat.

The only answer he received were a few gurgles as the man drowned in his own blood. And then there was only silence.

Iruka fell to the ground, the adrenalin of battle quickly leaving him. He wasn't bleeding too heavily, but he had to see a medic soon. He turned to the children to make sure they were all right, silently wondering what they were doing here, but deciding against giving voice to his question.

Asuma casually wiped his kunai in the clothes of the fallen traitor and put it back into his holster, turning to his pupils, who were staring wide eyed at him.

One look held a bit of anger, which surprised him.

"Damn it sensei! He was going to tell me what the big secret was! Now I still have to wait till I become chūnin!" Naruto yelled, clearly agitated.

No answer was given. Everyone in the clearing looked at him in various states of wonder.

Soon there was nothing but a pool of quickly drying blood to show that there had been a battle held there.

**Author's Notes:**

**And here's the new chapter. Next up: A C-rank mission that is not the Wave Arc! Gasp! The audacity!**

**But seriously, it's overplayed.**

**Anyway, expect it done till about Sunday.**

**Until then.**

**Cheers,  
>Simon<strong>


	6. Consequences

This, Naruto decided, was probably the most unpleasant night of his young life.

After returning to the village, the body of the traitor stored in a scroll, Iruka was sent to the hospital, the team - to the Hokage tower.

There had been questions.

And then more questions.

After a slight pause and a bit of a snack, there were even more questions, asked from completely different people.

It was now late into the night and Naruto was feeling testy. If the looks of his companions were anything to go by, he was not alone in his predicament.

Asuma was smoking, looking every bit the jounin, back straight, posture stiff. A slight sigh escaped him from time to time, mostly when he looked at his pupils.

Sasuke had dropped his stoic facade after the second round of questions, replacing it with irritation. The young Uchiha's mind led him to another instance when he had been asked a never-ending string of questions. It was not a pleasant memory.

Sakura looked nervous and scared, but her eyes held a slightly glassy look. The young girl had not expected to see death on her first night as a shinobi. She was starting to question her decision of becoming one in the first place. The integration, no matter how relatively good hearted it was, did not help.

The genin cell was currently at the lobby of the Hokage's office, waiting to be admitted and no doubt asked more questions. Not for the first time Naruto felt pity for the old man, or anyone foolish enough to even consider taking his place. He honestly could not fathom how he managed the long hours of work and doing an admirable job at it. Hell, he couldn't understand how the leader of the village hadn't yet cracked and gone on the mother of all killing frenzies.

The door of the office opened and a tired looking woman motioned for them to come in. The team stood up and one by one entered the office. The woman, who was the Hokage's personal assistant that day, motioned for the quartet to sit down.

They did so.

The old man looked just as tired and weary as everyone else that night. Despite that he still had an aura of good will and relaxation, which was one of the many reasons Naruto respected the man so. And yet, despite the respect, Naruto was ready to throttle the man if he asked anything more about the mission, consequences be damned.

The boy had yet to grow up completely.

With a sight, that showed his age to everyone present, the old man motioned for the secretary, who took out pen and paper and stood ready to write down anything said in the room.

"I apologize for keeping you at such a late hour. I also apologize that you had to witness what you did tonight, but sadly it was... necessary." the man said, giving Naruto a very pointed look.

The blond, for his part, took the mature road and pouted childishly.

"You are here so that I can officially thank you for your participation in the capture of the traitor. While I find myself questioning the decision which led you there," this time he gave his son a pointed look, one laced with anger. The shrug that answered him did nothing to curb it "but I recognize the reasoning behind it."

The smug look on Asuma's face was not missed by anyone.

"Payment for your participation, no matter how small, will be transferred to you at earlier convenience." the Hokage said as if he was reciting a phrase, which he probably was.

One did not become the head of a hidden village without experience.

"Now then. The formalities are done and we can speak freely." as if on cue, the secretary took her things and exited the room, shutting the door behind her.

"If any of you need help with... dealing with what happened tonight, you can always turn to your sensei. If he cannot help, he will in turn send you to a person more fitted to deal with such problems." a much warmer Hokage said. "Dealing with seeing death can be... troubling, especially for one's so young and inexperienced."

The sharp look that he once more threw at his son could not be ignored, again.

Neither could the one of complete indifference that the jounin returned.

Sighing, feeling every bit his age, the old man observed the children. Sakura was looking relieved, happy that she would not be left to deal with the situation alone. It was to be expected, of course. Despite growing up in a hidden village, she had led a peaceful life, a peaceful life which was now shattered by the death of someone she knew, personally. And so soon after graduating.

It was a hard life, that of a shinobi.

Sasuke on the other hand looked calm and collected. It pained the Hokage to see someone so young be so unmoved by death. And yet he was neither the first, nor the last child that had gone through horror and came out a different person. Yes, the young Uchiha would have no trouble giving death, which why a good quality for a shinobi to have, was sad all the same.

The old man just prayed that the child did not break, like his brother did.

Naruto, the child that he had watched grow up, all too fast in his opinion, looked simply bored. With the debriefing, with the questions, with the formality. It was not a look a normal child would have after witnessing a man killed in cold blood.

But, as he often had to remind himself, Naruto was no normal child.

He had leaked killing intent since he was a child. And as he grew that intent grew with him. Sometimes, the old man worried about the blond.

He had asked Jiraya to check the seal, once he had confirmed where the intent came from. And he was told that it was the seal's purpose - leaking some of the beast's chakra in the boys system. The chakra itself was purified, converted into something that a human could use, but the intent lingered. And it changed the child.

It could not be seen in his day to day interactions with the world. He was cheerful, if a bit sarcastic, but charming and easygoing all the same. But when he entered battle, seriously and completely, he was different - there was no hesitation in his motions, no mercy, no limit. It was the mentality of a seasoned warrior, not that of a child.

And that scared the man.

Because while the boy was not a monster inherently, he could easily become one. One wrong step, one wrong move and he could turn into something the old man did not want to imagine.

He only hoped that his son, who had surely noticed this trait, as well as his friends and teammates, could keep the boy grounded and off the path of monsters.

With one last sigh, the man smiled kindly at the team before him.

"Well, I'm sure we all want to have some well-deserved sleep at this point. Dismissed."

He watched as the four people stood and bowed with a collective 'Hokage-sama' exiting their mouths. They walked out of the office, leaving the old man with his thoughts.

They were not pleasant.

XXXXX

The group split up shortly after exiting the tower, each heading to his home. Asuma had told them that the meeting time stood - it would not be unusual for them to get below their optimal amount of sleep when on a mission.

They had also thought about the night and what they had seen - a man, killing another man in cold blood and without remorse.

Of course, when saying that they had talk, it was more along the lines of Asuma talking, Sakura listening and feeling somewhat better, but not really, and the two boys on the other team barely even paying attention.

They were, after all bred specifically for this lifestyle.

Much was on the mind of the young girl when she walked through the door of her home. It was late, later than she had ever come home in night. In retrospect, it should have been obvious that her parents would be worried about her.

In retrospect she should have probably asked someone to tell them that everything was fine, even though it really, really wasn't.

But she didn't.

And now she had to deal with her mother and father who could not possibly comprehend what she had seen. It was a sad thought, one that hadn't crossed her mind while she was in the Academy, preparing to deal death and accept it.

Not that it did much.

"Where have you been young lady!" her mother positively shrieked making Sakura flinch. Deep down she wondered if she sounded like that and made a vow not to raise her voice to such heights ever again, if only for the sake of the sanity of those around her.

The girl did not answer. She was tired and had to get up early the next morning. She positively did not have the energy for another round of questions, and this time from someone who had no idea what the answers would mean.

Her father said nothing, while her mother looked at her with anger, waiting for a reply. It was not an unusual occurrence. He was a merchant and had dealt with shinobi more than once. He had some idea what being one entitled.

He had been strongly against her decision to become one, but finally relented, after much begging of course.

"My teammates and I had an unexpected problem and were delayed." Sakura turned to her mother, with a sigh, hoping beyond hope that this would please her "It is... nothing for you to worry about."

And it was the truth, for even if she wanted to, her mother couldn't understand. Seeing someone die... changed you. It was subtle, but it was there. Death became a reality not an ambiguous thing that happened to other people, a fact that Sakura thought she would be dealing with for a while.

Her father, noticing her hesitation, nodded in understanding, subtly of course. Quietly, but sternly, he calmed down his still shouting wife, allowing his child, his precious daughter to sleep.

Knowing that this was just the first of the many incidents that would drive a wedge between him and his daughter.

Sakura went to her room and fell down on the bed, not even bothering to take her clothes off. She put an alarm for the appropriate time, deciding that her daily routine to look pretty was not as important as a little more sleep.

It would not be the last time she made that decision.

Soon, she was sleeping, thrashing and flinching on her bed. Nightmares were a constant companion of a shinobi. One learned to live with them, in time.

It would not be the last restless night she had.

XXXXX

Sasuke walked through the deserted Uchiha compound. Not a sound could be heard, nor a light, nor movement. It was like a ghost town out of a children's scary story.

In a way it was.

Every time the boy walked through the compound he would remember. The happy and carefree faces of his clan. The kids playing, the adults doing their respected business.

It was a beautiful, bittersweet memory.

Of course, it was not the only memories he had of this place. Every time he saw a non-fixed slash mark, or a spot that was just a bit darker than the others.

Those memories were simply bitter.

But time had dulled them. Time and Naruto's friendship, not that he would ever tell that to anyone.

He still wanted, needed revenge. But he also knew that he had time and when the moment came - someone to rely upon. Someone equally driven and strong.

Someone that even the Uchiha clan would recognize as a potential ally.

The night's activities did not bear too much on the young man's mind. He had seen death, before, many, many times, death more horrible than the one he saw that night.

It had long lost its edge.

He knew that Naruto was equally prepared to stare down the end of a life. Sometimes, when they trained, when they sparred with no regard for safety and reason, he could see it in his eyes. They bore a shine, a twinkle of insanity.

He had seen it in the older shinobi in the village. He had seen it in the eyes of his sensei. He had seen it, flashing madly in his brother's eyes, the night when he killed everyone Sasuke held dear. And he saw it every day when he looked in the mirror.

And sometimes, in the deepest corners of his soul, he was afraid of that insanity. Of that lust for battle, for death.

Because he knew that he could easily turn into something just as terrible as his brother.

That he would one day simply snap, just as he had, and destroy everything and everyone around him.

Yes, he feared himself, more than anything else.

But those fears were curbed when he remembered that he was not alone, that there was at least one more person beside him with the same spark of insanity. And he knew, just as he was sure Naruto did, that they would keep each other on the right road. And if not, well... at least there would be someone to put a permanent stop on their madness.

Thinking about his team made him remember his other teammate, Sakura. She had been scared and shocked by the death of their former instructor. His first reaction, of course, was contempt. How did this girl even think that she could do anything in the world of shinobi when she shied away from giving death?

But then he remembered what he had to go through to stand where he did. And his feeling of contempt was replaced with jealousy and fear. Jealousy of the simple life the girl lived, of her innocence that was not yet lost.

And fear that soon enough, if she walked with them, she would too plunge in the same madness that plagued him.

But it was a moot point. She was a shinobi, a warrior of the village, recognized as an adult. Her thoughts were hers as was the path she chose to walk. And if she did chose insanity, well then...

There would be one more person to keep him on the right path.

Sasuke reached his room, the place where he had spent his entire life, where he had seen both happiness and horror. He lay in his bed and fell asleep.

His rest was peaceful, uninterrupted.

XXXXX

Naruto was walking the familiar road to his small apartment. There were few people on the street and even fewer seemed to recognize him.

That was a relief.

Because Naruto was scared.

For all the boredom and nonchalance that he showed, he was terrified.

Because there, in the forest of Konoha, he realized what the old man meant when he spoke, a long, long time ago.

It was when he was training to control his killing intent. The training was harsh, consisting of exposure to the old man's own intent, over and over again. It was suffocating, terrifying. It was wrong.

Little by little, he got accustomed to the workings of the intent. At first he could simply resist it. Soon he could project it at will, more and more, with each passing day.

And then one day the old man told him that his training was complete and he was done.

But he also told him to be careful, because such intent meant that he was willing to take a life. No, not willing but ready and determined. And that that could be a terrible burden.

Naruto had nodded, taking the words at face value, without really understanding what they meant. The old man had seen that and had looked sadder and older than the young boy had ever seen him. The Hokage had told him that he hoped he learned the meaning behind his words before it was too late.

Naruto hadn't understood what he meant at the time.

He did now.

Because, there in the forest, he knew that if Asuma hadn't moved, but instead given him the signal, he would have lunged, without hesitation or remorse.

He thought, and he thought over the nights events.

And suddenly he remembered a story, _the _story, the one which had set him on the road of the shinobi.

And he remembered that a shinobi struck without hesitation.

Slowly, very slowly, his fear turned into happiness.

Because he was now closer to what a real shinobi should be.

On a deeper level, he knew that he should be concerned in this rapid change of emotions. Because they did not come from another source (how he knew that, he could not explain, or for that matter what external source there was). They came from him.

And Naruto realized that he and Sasuke were more alike than he had ever realized.

Because the blond was just as obsessed. Obsessed with becoming the shinobi he saw in his mind - ruthless, strong, unwavering. And the path that led to his obsession could be equally destructive as the bath to Sasuke's revenge.

It was then that Naruto realized that he was just as broken as his friend. More, in some ways.

He came to his apartment and lay down on his bed, but sleep evaded him.

He lay there, looking at the sealing till later still in night, hoping that his chosen path was the right one, that he could come at the end of it and not regret his choices. He hoped that his friend, his only friend, could accompany him till the end, just as he was going to accompany him to the end of his road.

Yes, sleep did not come easy to Naruto that night.

XXXXX

The next month was relatively uneventful, when compared with the first day of the official forming of Team 7.

In truth, the only think that the children could spare thoughts about was training. Because as laid back and relaxed Asuma appeared, he was still a jounin. And he was a jounin who had made it his personal quest to bring out the very best in his students.

Coincidently bringing out the very best out of his students was an experience that they would not soon forget.

For it was more horrible than any training, both supervised and self-imposed that any of them had done.

And yet, you could not argue with results. All of them were progressing nicely both in their overall performance and in their particular specializations.

Sakura, who was suddenly taking everything much more seriously, to the silent approval of both Asuma and her teammates, could already form medical chakra and heal simple bruises and cuts. It was universally agreed that she had great talent for the field. Her close combat skills were increasing as well. She managed to hold her own against Sasuke, despite never winning.

Sasuke was progressing nicely, having learned at least one low-level jutsu of each element. Fire was still his go to choice though. Asuma was trying hard to break him out of his reliance on the element, with little success so far. The jounin was considering applying methods he would not speak of. The smile he had when he mentioned them was enough for Sasuke to actively try not to rely on the fire element.

Naruto's physical skills had exploded under Asuma's tutelage. Once the jounin found out that he had a much quicker recovery rate than average, his body was abused almost constantly. His strength was nothing worth noticing - he had just enough to be able to cut reliably. His speed on the other hand was on at least low chūnin level. His reflexes were equally good and were constantly polished. The boy was training in using longer blades, but was still far from applying them in real combat. He was also beginning to understand how to enhance his attributes with massive amounts of chakra, something he had to spare. It pushed his limits even further.

All in all, Asuma was very impressed with the raw talent and potential his pupils displayed. Impressed and somewhat weary. He still remembered that each of them, with the possible exception of Sakura, had some problems and could easily break under the strain of power.

His weariness was kept at bay when he saw the interactions in the team. Sasuke and Naruto were as close as ever, trading barbs and jokes almost constantly. Slowly but surely, they were also starting to include Sakura, in light of her renewed determination to succeed as well as the talent she displayed.

Yes, at the end of the month of intense training his team was shaping to be an effective fighting force.

It was not without pride that he constantly bragged about them to the other jounin-sensei. It had become something of a tradition for the jounin of the new rookie teams to get together and compare progress.

Asuma was glad to see that his team was the envy of the other jounin.

Sadly, as he later realized, nothing went so well without a massive backwash, especially in the world of shinobi.

XXXXX

It was the end of another long day of training. The children were currently winding down, sparring lightly with each other, while Asuma happily puffed on his cigarette. Pride was evident in his features.

His pupils would go far.

"OK, that's enough for today." he called out, the children instantly dropping to the ground, panting and exhausted. It was not an irregular occurrence.

Asuma had once said that the more they trained in peace, the less they bled in war.

The kid's still somewhat hated him for the harsh training though.

Asuma smiled, as he made his way to his team.

"Anyone remember what day today is?" he asked.

Instantly all three of them turned attentive, each of them nodding sharply.

It was after all, the end of the month of training.

"Oh, you do don't you?" Asuma said "That's good. Well, rejoice, for tomorrow we are taking our first mission!"

Smiles were exchanged and happiness was evident. All of the children were eager to have a break from the training.

It spoke volumes about the harshness of the training that the team considered a potentially lethal mission a vacation.

"Tomorrow morning, we're getting a mission from the Hokage's office." Asuma continued, ignoring the whispers of the children before him "Do be on time."

And with that he disappeared with a swirl of leaves, leaving his team alone in the training grounds, as was usual.

Slowly they stood up talking and joking with each other. Their exhaustion seemed insignificant compared to the monumental occasion that was their first actual mission.

Suddenly Naruto frowned, something that rarely happened to the boy who always smiled softly.

"Um..." he said, drawing the attention of his teammates "I should probably mention that I have a really bad feeling about this mission."

The team had learned that Naruto's hunches were not something that should be ignored, for they were almost always right.

"Well, crap." Sasuke summarized their collective feelings accurately.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello and welcome to the next chapter of the story.**

**Sorry that I couldn't jump directly into the mission, but this seemed like a good place to stop.**

**And no, this is not a Wave recycling; I have something different in mind. It will be appropriately dramatic. I hope.**

**On a side note, I changed the summary of the story. Thoughts? Suggestions? They'd be appreciated.**

**Cheers,  
>Simon<strong>


	7. Firsts

Early in the morning, the genin of Team 7 met in front of the Hokage tower, as they were instructed.

Each of them had prepared for their very first mission, packing enough rations and supplies to get them through an extended period of time, carrying them all into storage scrolls in their hip pouches.

Few recognized the three, with the exception of Naruto, simply because they looked decidedly different from their usual appearances.

Sasuke had donned dark blue pants, taped at the ankles, and a long sleeved shirt of the same color. Instead of his usual arm warmers, he wore sturdy looking forearm protectors. His forehead protector was tied on his right leg, above his kunai pouch.

Sakura had forgone her usual dress, dressing in dark red colors. She wore long pants and a normal looking t-shirt. Her hands were wrapped in bandages up to her elbows and her forehead protector rested on her neck.

Naruto wore exactly the same outfit he usually did, but he looked tense and uncomfortable, a feeling that his teammates shared with him.

All in all the three looked decidedly professional and not at all like three genin who were going on a mission, out of Konoha even, for the first time.

All three of them hoped that their training would be enough.

After all, Naruto's hunches were rarely wrong.

"So, you guys ready for this?" Naruto said, breaking the tense silence.

Sasuke simply nodded, worry still visible on his face. Despite knowing that they had done whatever they could to prepare for this, he was still nervous.

"If you're asking if I prepared everything I had to, then yes." Sakura said. After the month of training she was more at ease with the boys, no longer fearing speaking her mind. Usually. "If you're asking if I'm sure that none of us will die, and it's going to be my fault because I didn't train hard enough as a medic nin, then no."

Both boys snickered a bit, despite their own nervousness. Since starting her medic nin training, Sakura had taken her responsibility very seriously. She was very dedicated to the idea of keeping both boys alive. In fact, from time to time, either Sasuke or Naruto had to return her home, since she refused to stop training, often to the point of exhaustion. The talks with her parents (especially her mother) at those days were memories both boys tried very hard to forget.

Even a shinobi faltered before the might of a concerned parent.

"Come off it Sakura." Sasuke said, turning to the girl "We aren't dying and neither are you. Have some faith in us."

The boy had considerately warmed up to the pink-haired girl over the course of the month. This was partially due to the dedication she showed when training and partially because it often left her too exhausted to remember to bug him for dates.

Of course, often wasn't nearly often enough for the Uchiha.

"Aw, are the little children nervous?" a new voice said from right behind them, making all of them jump and turn, hands moving to grasp weapons. Then they realized that it was Asuma, who constantly did things like that. They had bet on when one of them would kill him by accident.

"Don't worry, I'll be there if something goes wrong." the man added, seriousness creeping in his voice.

"We know Asuma-sensei, we know." Naruto said, sighing "I just have a feeling that this is going to suck."

Asuma frowned slightly. He had done some experimentation with Naruto's luck, whenever they were both free. By what he'd seen (and the rapidly expanding cash he had invested) Naruto was simply never wrong when it came to luck and instinct. It almost made him scrap the whole mission and try later. The only thing that stopped him from doing just that was the backlash that he, his father and the team would face from the council.

"Well, as I said, I'll be there." Asuma repeated, trying to reassure both the team and himself "What's the worst thing that could happen on a C-rank mission?"

The three children stared at him.

Then they shared a look.

Then they stared at him again.

Sasuke whispered something to Sakura. The word 'doomed' made its way into his speech multiple times.

Naruto simply shook his head.

"If we die on this mission Asuma-sensei" Sakura said, all too sweet, but with a glint in her eye "I will haunt you forever."

The four entered the Hokage tower.

XXXXX

Naruto entered the waiting room outside the mission assignment office, trailing behind his team. He took in the room, looking for anyone who looked threatening, despite knowing full well that he was amidst the most well protected part of the village.

A traitor had managed to steal a scroll from here after all.

Naruto took his job as the first line of defense very seriously.

He found no threats and no familiar faces, until he saw the white eyes that screamed Hyuuga. It was Hyuuga Hinata, his classmate and more importantly, the heiress of the most respected clan in the village.

This meant that the rest of her team was there too.

This also meant...

Asuma quickly left his team, going directly for Yuhi Kurenai, Team 8's jounin sensei. He offered a quick hello to the children and started talking with the woman, taking her to the side.

Naruto palmed his face. He knew his sensei was an adult and had the full right to chase after women he liked, but in the middle of the Hokage tower? Just before a mission that would definitely go horrifically wrong?

Resigned to his fate, he motioned to his teammates, who had reactions similar to his. The three of them went to the only other genin team currently in the room.

"Hello." Naruto greeted, followed quickly by Sakura and Sasuke. The two quickly reverted to what each of them was doing before speaking - the Uchiha brooded, the Haruno worried. That left Naruto the spokesman of his team.

It was, the blond decided, a most unpleasant place to be.

"H-h-he-hello, Uzumaki-san." the Hyuuga heiress replied. Naruto had always found it strange that a person, let alone the heir, from such a prominent clan could ever be so meek. He had no real interactions with the clan, of course, which meant that he knew what they were like mostly by rumor. The only member of the clan that he had seen, besides Hinata, was her cousin Neji, and he fit the clan stereotype he had in his head to the letter.

"Hello Uzumaki-san." Aburame Shino acknowledged with a nod. Even when they were still in the Academy, Shino struck Naruto as an extremely reserved individual. He was precise, logical and to the point, which Naruto greatly admired. Still, the boy could laugh a bit more often. Being serious all the time was probably not healthy.

"Uzumaki" Kiba nodded, Akamaru, his dog partner, yipping from his position on top of the Inuzuka's head. Since the incident at the Academy, the boy had been somewhat wary of Naruto. He was, for a lack of better word, neutral to the blond. If he had to guess, it was because the boy was raised to be in tune with his animal instincts. Naruto had shown dominance, so Kiba behaved, at least in front of him.

It was one of the few times that Naruto had met any of the teams after the Academy and it was the first time that he realized what an exceptional crop of graduates they were. With the sole exception of him and Sakura, they were all the heirs of prominent shinobi clans.

It was like something out of a bad movie.

Shaking his head at his thoughts Naruto turned once more to Team 8.

"How's life been treating you?" the blond asked "Anything interesting happen recently?"

"We have been fine Uzumaki-san." Shino answered in a monotone "Nothing that could be considered out of the ordinary has happened."

Naruto did not outwardly react, but it was somewhat annoying having his questions answered so precisely. How was he supposed to keep up a conversation until Asuma finally finished with the other jounin and they could get on with the mission?

"A-no" Hinata said hesitantly, filling the growing silence "how has yo-your team been Uzumaki-san? We haven't seen yo-you around the village since graduation."

"Oh, you know" Naruto said, his smile a bit wider than his usual expression "We've done a bit of training. Nothing too horrible."

Sakura had a sudden coughing fit. Sasuke started muttering to himself in a worrying matter.

"Nothing. Too. Horrible." Naruto repeated. It was hard not to laugh.

Silence started to descent around the children again.

Naruto was contemplating how bad he was with people.

Sasuke was muttering about killing a certain sensei if he did not come in the next 10 seconds.

Sakura was deep in thought, going through all her medic nin lessons in her mind.

Team 8 just stared at the other team weirdly.

Luckily Asuma came back, followed by a smiling Kurenai, unknowingly preventing both awkwardness and attempted murder.

"Sorry to take you from your friends" he said, turning to his team, who just stared at him. It was slightly unnerving "but we have to go take our mission now."

His three genin instantly took off to the office. Asuma quickly followed them giving a quick goodbye to Kurenai and her team.

XXXXX

Team 7 was running in the threes, about 2 hours after exiting Konoha. They had yet to stop for rest.

The mission that was given to them was simple enough - a group of bandits had become too big of a problem for a small trading town. Konoha had been hired to deal with the bandits.

Simple.

There were no complicated plots, no secret information, and no conflicting interests with other shinobi villages.

Dealing with about 50 poorly trained bandits, a simple C-rank mission, one that could easily be trusted to a team of genin who had trained specifically for such missions.

Then why were all of Naruto's instincts telling him to go screaming into the night, never to return?

Life was weird like that.

Asuma had told the children, in his position as team leader, what the plan for this particular mission was.

They had no strict time limit of completion, so they would take their time and gather as much information as possible before attacking.

They would do so in the best possible moment, when they would have the least amount of opposition and would be done and gone before any of the bandits could even react.

Simple. Elegant. Almost completely fool-proof.

Naruto had approved.

This was, of course, right before Sakura, who was easily the most grounded of the genin, had raised a fair point.

None of them had ever killed.

Sure, they had seen someone get killed, but ending a person's life, looking as the light in his eyes went out forever was something completely different.

Sakura had read that a lot of people froze up when they killed for the first time.

It was a valid point. One that Asuma should have thought of.

He hadn't. His team was good - better than any other genin cell he had ever seen. They also acted, at least most of the time, beyond their age.

That had made him forget that, yes, they were in fact children and that yes, they had not killed.

This had led to a bit of change in his plans.

They would still take their time and learn as much as possible for the way the bandits operated, but before actually attacking each of the genin would kill a bandit. Asuma was responsible for making it appear as if a wild animal had attacked them, so as to not raise the alarm too much.

This could lead to complications, of course, but freezing up in the middle of a camp full of hostiles could be a much more complicated situation.

And so the team ran, from three to three, in silence. They had about 3 hours more before they reached the area where the camp was believed to be.

Asuma ran, regretting having to cut the innocence of the children under his care so early.

Sasuke ran, going through the plan in his head, thinking of what could go wrong.

Sakura ran, a mix of fear and excitement running through her at the thought of spilling blood. The excitement she felt left her even more afraid, afraid that she was catching the bloodlust that her teammates seemed to show from time to time, mostly when sparring with each other.

Naruto simply ran, refusing to think anything. Because if he started thinking his mind would go to his concerns. His mind would tell him to heed his instincts and turn around. And that was not something Naruto could live with.

XXXXX

Four hours later Team 7 had set up camp. It had taken about an hour for Asuma to find the camp while the children rested. He was, of course, unnoticed by the bandit sentries in the forest.

He wouldn't be much of a shinobi otherwise.

After the camp was set up and properly hidden, the team ate some ration bars. It was probably the most horrible tasting food in existence, but it would have been more than foolish to light a fire and announce their existence to the world.

"Naruto, I want you to take the first shift of observing the camp." Asuma turned to the chewing blond, who had an expression of pure disgust on his face. In retrospect, maybe he should have made them eat the ration bars for the month of training. At least they would have been accustomed to the taste by now. "Take note of the position of the sentries and the pattern of the guards."

Quickly nodding, Naruto washed down the bar with a sip of water and took off into the forest.

"Sasuke, Sakura. I want you to rest, but be on alert. I will guard the camp for now. In three hours Sakura will switch with me and Sasuke will switch with Naruto." said the jounin standing up and stretching "Dismissed."

The raven-headed boy and the pink haired girl nodded and almost way down against a tree, falling in a light sleep.

"If you three couldn't use the experience, I would have just gone and taken them out myself." Asuma grumbled, quietly. Lighting a cigarette, he sat on a rock which offered him a good view of the forest. "This is going to be such a drag..."

XXXXX

A week had passed since the Konoha shinobi had reached the forest and started keeping tabs on the bandit camp.

Of course, the bandit knew no such thing.

The children had gathered information and now knew when and where the patrols walked. They knew where to strike so as to not put themselves in danger. In short they were ready. Or at least almost ready.

Of course, the bandits did not know that.

Three sets of eyes were following one of the patrols, which went deeper in the forest than the others. It was today that their sensei had ordered them to dispose of the patrol.

The three bandits did not know that.

The three genin looked at each other, silently. There was hesitation in Sakura's eyes. There was impatience in Sasuke's. Naruto's eyes did not betray anything. It was as if he was taking a walk.

His teammates would have probably made a note of this, had it been any other time.

The three nodded and took off in different directions, circling the patrol, like predators homing in on their prey.

And the bandits did not know that.

Silently the shinobi moved, with skill received from rigorous training. They moved through the forest, not alerting their prey to their presence.

Silently the trio appeared behind the bandits, brandishing kunai.

The three moved.

Naruto struck, with no hesitation.

Sasuke followed, dragging the kunai through the neck of the second bandit.

Sakura froze, just for a moment. Then her expression steeled and she too struck down the last bandit.

The criminals were dead before they hit the forest floor.

Sakura ran to a tree and puked, tears streaming down her cheeks. Killing this stranger had ripped something out of her, something that she knew she would never get back.

Sasuke looked at his kunai, covered in blood. He felt more in control of his life than he had felt after his brother had massacred his clan. He was now sure that when the time came, he would not hesitate.

Naruto looked mildly interested at best. He was a shinobi after all. Shinobi did not hesitate.

Asuma appeared then. He inspected the corpses. The cuts were clean. The three bandits had not suffered in death.

He nodded at his genin, at his little soldiers. They disappeared, going to the camp.

Asuma started methodically making it appear as if the three were attacked by an animal.

Soon there was no trace that shinobi had been there.

Such was life.

XXXXX

The four talked long into the night.

Asuma told them of shinobi.

He told them of what the bandits had done. That they had killed and stole and deserved their fate 3 times over. He told them that the blood on their hands made the world a better place. This had made Sakura, who took the death she had caused the worst, to feel a little better.

Sasuke cared not of such rationalizations. A death was a death, deserved or not. He had lived in a family of killers and they had all been precious to him, despite their faults. He found no shame, no horror in death.

Naruto thought nothing of such things. It was his duty, as a shinobi of Konoha, to follow orders. When told to kill, he would. When told to still his hand, he would. He had to trust that those above him knew better, because if he didn't, than no matter what he did, the world would be a place not worth living in.

The jounin had seen the reactions of his team. Sakura, the sweet girl who came from the family of merchant, reacted with dismay, which was normal.

Sasuke who came from a family of shinobi reacted with acceptance. That too was normal.

Naruto, who was an orphan, save from his father, reacted with indifference. And the more Asuma observed the always smiling blond, the more he feared for him. Because sometimes there was a greater power than those above you, sometimes you had to think before you act.

He hoped his student learned that, because if he did not, Naruto would live a sad life, like so many others.

Asuma let the children sleep, watching over their slumber.

Tomorrow they finished their mission.

XXXXX

It was late in night. There was little sound going through the bandit camp.

Patrols endlessly walked the perimeter, watching for enemies.

Fires burned around the camp itself. Sometimes there were people around them, sometimes not.

The bandits themselves were a rugged bunch. They wore shaggy, dirty clothes. Their weapons were of low-quality and poorly maintained.

But as far as bandits went, they were successful. They had food and they had sake. It was more than many of them had had before joining in a single group.

The camp was asleep, unaware of danger. No one noticed the fours shadows that made it past the patrols, evading them with the knowledge acquired of long hours of observation.

Once inside the four split up, each going to a tent, exiting a moment later and moving onto the next.

All around the camp people died in their sleep, unaware that they were under attack. One by one they died.

Soon the four met in the middle of the camp, surrounded by silence, talking in whispers on the off chance that some of the bandits were alive. None of them were.

Naruto felt in his element. For the first time in his life he felt like a true shinobi. He struck from darkness, not allowing the enemy to notice his presence. He killed, quickly and silently, moving from target to target, not stopping, not resting.

He had completed his mission. His team had completed their mission.

He had never felt closer with anyone else before this moment.

He looked at Sakura, who looked vaguely ill, blood on her hands and kunai. No other girl had ever seemed so beautiful to him.

He looked at Sasuke, his eyes alert, searching for danger that did not exist.

He looked at Asuma who stood tall and proud, the very essence of a shinobi, alert to his surrounding, ever vigilant and tense.

They were his team, and they had done their mission, without fail.

It was a beautiful moment.

Beautiful moments did not last in the world of shinobi.

He felt his instincts scream, he felt his team tense.

They jumped back, four kunai imbedding themselves on the ground where they had stood just moments before.

Two figures came out of the darkness. They seemed relaxed, smirks playing on their faces. And yet, they radiated danger.

"Well, well, well." one of the figures spoke, his voice a low rumble that promised suffering "Looks like we have promising targets this time."

After that night, Team 7 would never doubt Naruto's hunches.

**Author's notes:**

**Hello and welcome to the next installment of Nindo. Hope you enjoyed it.  
><strong>  
><strong>A couple of things:<br>1. I'm still looking for a beta. If you are willing - write me a message, any help would be greatly appreciated.  
>2. Thanks for all the reviews, keep them coming! They feel great.<br>3. said something about elemental manipulation in his review and I'll use that as a convenient point to express why I am not having the team learn it until much later in the story. The thing is, the way I see it, it is very time consuming and not at all appropriate for genin who are still forming their styles and working on the basics. Yes it is useful and powerful, but let's be realistic - spending half an year simply learning to mold chakra in a very specific way will not be good for you in the long run.**

**And that's about it, or at least I can't think of anything else right now. I'd be glad to answer any specific questions about the story or anything else (if I can of course).**

**Cheers,  
>Simon<strong>


	8. Battle amids the trees

"Well, well, well. Looks like we have some promising targets this time."

Instantly Naruto tensed, also feeling the rest of his team doing the same. The newcomers radiated danger, much in the same way many of the more experienced shinobi in Konoha did.

The two new enemies wore similar outfits, but were still very different. The first was tall and somewhat bulky with mop like black hair whilst the other one was short and looked non-threatening, with long brown hair. The taller of the two was wearing a normal looking pants-shirt combo, designed for durability and stealth, dark green in color. He had no visible weapons, besides the standard kunai pouch. His companion wore a similar outfit, but instead carried many bulky pouches. If Naruto had to guess, the first one was a taijutsu specialist, while the shorter one was either a weapon user or a trap master.

Of course, appearances can be deceiving.

Naruto instantly stepped in-front of his team, taking a ready stance. Asuma stepped beside him doing the same. Interestingly enough, the two enemy shinobi seemed in no rush to attack. In fact, they seemed rather content just talking to each other, ignoring the existence of the hostile shinobi in front of them.

"This team did very well, don't you think?" continued the taller one "We'll surely make a killing out of them. And if I'm not mistaken that's Sarutobi Asuma. He has quite the bounty on his head."

The shorter shinobi nodded sagely "Yes, it seems we hit quite the haul tonight."

Asuma turned ever so slightly to his team, never taking his eyes off the enemy. He himself didn't know the newcomers, but were he a hunter-nin, he bet that he would recognize them. The aura they were radiating... they were definitely no pushovers. His team was not yet ready for this encounter, despite their month of training and abundance of talent.

"Team." he said quietly, but in a tone that commanded obedience "We are retreating. Sakura, Sasuke you go first. Naruto you will follow after them. I'll keep them busy and catch up to you later. Go directly to Konoha and do not stop for any reason. The password is swordfish. GO!"

The Genin nodded. Naruto started to slowly step back, waiting for his teammates to run. He knew why he was at the back of the group – he was needed to intercept and slow down any potential pursuers.

Somehow he was not certain of his ability to do so; this was a completely new feeling for him.

The two enemies seemed to naturally expel killing intent. The intent was stronger than Naruto could manage whilst actively trying. Now that he actually noticed it, he was suddenly aware of the intent being radiated from all the shinobi in the clearing. Asuma's intent was the strongest out of all of them, while Sakura's was the weakest. That was somewhat expected - she still hadn't acquired a solid resolve for killing. The different shinobi's killing intent seemed to swirl around the clearing, seemingly roaring at one another, battling for dominance. Naruto's intent was clearly losing; he could almost feel traces of fear stabbing his person. He could only imagine how his team currently felt.

Without warning, Asuma jumped forward brandishing his trench knives. Faster than Naruto could follow, he was in front of the two foreign shinobi, slashing at the both of them with his weapons. His swing was wide, obviously aimed at pushing them away versus actually injuring them. In the same instant as Asuma's prompt attack, the blond felt both Sakura and Sasuke retreat to the nearest tree. Sparing one last look at his sensei, who was preparing his next attack, Naruto turned around to follow his team.

As was to be expected, Asuma's first slash was dodged. He prepared to swing again, but stopped short and jumped back as he saw the taller of the two quickly flipping through hand seals. The tall shinobi placed his hands on the ground and a spray of rocks was hurled in Asuma's general direction. The Jounin dodged the stone projectiles, which were quickly followed by a pair of kunai with lit exploding tags, thrown by the shorter shinobi. Soon after, more rock projectiles flew at him with explosive tag laced kunai mixed in.

The jounin managed to dodge it all, but realized too late that they had been aiming to move him out of the way as he saw the taller of the two shinobi dash past him in the same direction his Genin had gone. Just to add insult to injury, the tall man mock saluted him as he entered the forest.

Before Asuma could intercept him, shuriken started raining down on him, causing him to halt his chase as he was forced to dodge again.

"Now, now Sarutobi Asuma." the smaller of the two enemies said, his voice laced with amusement "I shall be your entertainment for the night. We wouldn't want to spoil the kids' fun now would we?" The man punctuated his words with another hail of exploding kunai, forcing Asuma to retreat between the trees.

If he had to summarize the situation with one word, he would have to say "crap."

XXXXX

The trio of Genin ran through the trees, their bodies pumping with adrenalin, senses hyper-aware for any sort of danger. They all knew that they were in a horrible situation, but years of steady conditioning, as well as their past month of hardcore training, enabled them to detach themselves from worry and instead focus on their current orders. So they pushed themselves to run at full speed and reach Konoha, just as they were ordered.

Suddenly, Naruto felt the air saturate with thick killing intent. He quickly jumped to the side, his team doing the same, as a kunai passed through the air that his head had previously occupied. The blond fell to the ground, rolling with the landing to reduce any damage and quickly sprung to his feet, ninjato drawn and in hand.

Calmly, in complete contrast to the raging murderous intent in the air, the taller of the two shinobi came into view, idly spinning a kunai around his finger.

"Hello kiddies." the man said smiling in a cheerful manner "I've come to play."

Naruto didn't rise to the jab, nor did Sasuke or Sakura. They remembered what Asuma had told them about many high level shinobi using verbal barbs as a means of taunting their opponents. The three Genin were not yet at that level of strength where they could casually insult the opposition. They couldn't spare the breath to talk, let alone taunt.

"You know, you're pretty fast for kids your age." the man continued, not yet bothering to get into an attacking stance. Had Naruto spotted even a tiny opening at that moment, he would have struck, but as laid back at the enemy was, he did not spot any.

"I bet you're wondering why my partner and I are attacking you? It's quite an amusing story, if I do say so myself."

Naruto really hadn't bothered to think about that. It was an accepted fact that the unexpected happened during missions, even routine ones such as this. The blond did not answer, his face set in the emotionless mask he wore during battle. Slowly his killing intent rose, challenging his opponent's, the two invisible forces of intent clashing like wild animals.

The shinobi raised an eyebrow, mildly surprised at the level of killing intent the blonde boy was expelling. Then his face set back into a cheerful expression, his own intent rising at the same rate as the blonds. He continued talking without commenting on the boy's apparent skill.

"You see, the two of us are what you call missing nin. It's not important you know from which village we are missing." the man said, laughing lightly. Naruto inwardly cursed. If he could know where the man was from, he might have known what to expect of him. "Nor is it important you know _why_ we escaped."

"What _is_ important for you to know, is that we have to make a living out of our jobs. And simply doing the occasional mission here and there just doesn't quite cut it for us." The man continued to talk while waving his hands about to punctuate his points. "So one day my partner and I sat down and started thinking. What is one of the most valuable things to a shinobi village? And do you know what we figured out?"

At these words, the killing intent from the man suddenly intensified, causing Naruto to nervously gulp. The blonde ninja slowly moved the free hand behind his back, wiggling his fingers in a familiar pattern that the team had set during one of their training sessions. He let his team know what to do after the shinobi had stopped talking.

"Why, they value secrets of course! So we figured – what's the best way of attracting semi strong shinobi, but at the same time repelling any useless trash that aren't worth our time? So we set up bandit groups here and there, get them to stir some trouble, get a cut of whatever they steal, kill the team eventually sent to eliminate them, loot the rest of the plunder, sell the shinobi, or at least their bodies, to whoever is willing. Rinse and repeat." the man said, cheer mixing with malicious glee "And you, dear children, are our next pay day. I wonder how much we'll get for you?"

The kunai on his finger stopped spinning.

Naruto instantly rushed the man, chakra circulating through his body. The man didn't move, simply standing there with his kunai at the ready. Sakura and Sasuke went to the trees, Sasuke already started on a long string of seals.

Naruto slashed at the man's ribs, adding his whole body weight to the blow. The shinobi simply blocked with his kunai, not budging at all. Naruto instantly snapped out with a kick to his knee, which the man blocked with his shin. Pushing back slightly, Naruto dropped his stance lower and spun into a swing, his ninjato tearing through the air, aiming at the man's legs. The shinobi jumped up, dodging the swing and moved to strike out at the blonde with his kunai, but instead backed off as Naruto reversed his grip and slashed upwards.

The man's smile only grew as Naruto switched hands and attacked from the left before then attacking from the right again, aiming at the mans' organs and arteries. Naruto continued to attack non-stop, aiming to buy as much time as possible for Sasuke, knowing perfectly well that the shinobi in front of him was playing around.

The shinobi blocked yet another strike and locked his kunai with the young genin's blade.

"Well, boy, you certainly do have an…_interesting _style." he said with a patronizing tone "You attack pretty well, but how well do you _defend_?"

And with that, the man went on the offensive, slashing, stabbing, punching and kicking. Naruto wouldn't be able dodge everything, he was painfully aware of this fact. So he let any non-lethal attacks hit his body, and concentrated on dodging the lethal ones. Soon he was covered in bruises and shallow nicks, slowly leaking precious life blood.

"Well," *slash* *dodge* "I'm sufficiently impressed," *kick* *block* "your pretty good for someone your age"*slash* Pain.

Faster than Naruto could follow, the man lashed out with a powerful mid-kick that sent the boy staggering back, clutching his chest and gasping for breath. The shinobi before him silently looked on with an appraising eye, watching the minor cuts as they seemed to slowly close up before his eyes.

The blond dearly hoped that Sasuke was going to be ready soon, because if this kept up he would be in huge trouble, accelerated healing or not.

"And you seem to have a splendid healing ability as well! Yes, yes, you'll make a fine price from some village, what is your name boy?"

Finally getting his breath under control, the boy glared at the man. He was tempted not to answer the man, simply out of principle, but every second spent talking was a second more for Sasuke.

"Uzumaki… Uzumaki, Naruto." the blond slowly said, slightly bowing in a mocking manner, flinching ever so slightly at the stab of pain as he bent over.

"An Uzumaki, huh..? No red hair though... interesting." the man said, pondering his thoughts out loud. Naruto perked up slightly, not knowing that his surname held any importance. Had he not been in a battle to the death, he would have tried to interrogate the man for information. Sadly, he was.

"Oh well, I'll figure it out later." the man said, lifting up his kunai "I'm afraid that I'm done playing with you now, I still have to chase your friends and..."

"NARUTO!" the shinobi was interrupted, as a loud female cry rang out from the trees, making the aforementioned blond instantly start on a string of seals as he charged the man in front of him.

The man was briefly surprised as the boy rushed him again. Just before he was about to simply knock the blonde out a puff of smoke enveloped the whiskered blond. The smoke cleared an instant later, revealing Sasuke with his hands positioned before his mouth.

"Fire Release: Grand Fireball!"

A huge ball of fire, easily bigger and more intense than the one used on the day of his Genin test, flew from the mouth of the young Uchiha and bulldozed its' way towards the enemy shinobi. The speed and sheer size of the fireball combined with the short distance it was released from, gave the man no time to move out of the way. The fireball soon engulfed him completely, removing his body from the view of the Genin around him. As soon as the technique had left his lungs, Sasuke was once again enveloped in a puff of smoke. Switching out with a kunai he appeared next to his teammates on a tree branch some meters away from a now flaming crater, where an enemy shinobi had stood moments before.

Sakura's hands were enveloped in green chakra, already hard at work at patching up Naruto, who even with his healing, looked like one giant open wound with his clothes and flesh ripped. Both Naruto and Sasuke were panting heavily from the amount of effort exerted, one from the physical battle he had just fought, however quick it was, whilst other from the amount of chakra sapped from him by his technique.

All of the children hoped, dearly hoped, that this had worked. It was one of the more potent combinations they had worked on. It had been drilled into their minds that a swift and decisive surprise attack could land them a victory against a superior opponent, which the shinobi had clearly been.

And as they watched the flames slowly die out, they held their breath, hoping to see the charred remains of their enemy lying within.

The flames died out completely, revealing a black, vaguely humanoid figure in the middle of the crater caused by the intense fire, finally the children released a breath of relief. The trio jumped down from the tree branch and landed with cat like grace upon the ground, Sakura still continuing to heal Naruto.

A slow clap resounded from a tree not even two meters away from them.

The three froze, as the humanoid figure in the crater slowly lost its shape and turned into a pile of something that resembled mud.

"Very good!" the voice of the man called out "That was very impressive! And a medic nin too, in such a young team. Delightful."

The Genin turned to look at a nearby tree branch, where the unharmed shinobi stood leaning on the trunk, completely unscathed.

"Sadly, I'm afraid I don't have any more time to play around" he continued, jumping to the ground.

Naruto stepped forward, grimly bracing himself.

Because this was probably going to be the end of his young life.

XXXXX

Asuma was not having a good time.

Truth be told, from what he'd observed from the shinobi that he was fighting, he wasn't that good. Yeah, he had stealth and a pretty good throwing arm, but that was it.

What really made him dangerous were all the traps.

He seemed to have prepared the entire section of the forest with a multitude of traps. The Jounin couldn't take two steps in any direction without having to quickly dodge an explosion, a poisoned kunai or some sort of spike. Frankly it was getting ridiculous.

Worse yet, he still couldn't locate exactly where the enemy was, being too focused on dodging the deadly traps, and he couldn't maneuver himself out of the trees.

In short, it was a very crappy situation.

Turning around, the Jounin extended his senses to their limit, in search of any movement.

A storm of kunai came from every direction, interrupting him from getting a bead on his opponent.

Asuma flipped through a couple of handsels and clapped his hands before spreading them in a rough circle around his body.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"

A burst of wind escaped his palms, knocking all the weapons away. Instantly, Asuma was moving, desperately trying to locate his enemy.

He really didn't have time for this, by now his entire team could be dead and he really couldn't have that.

He actually liked the kids…sort of, despite the fact that the majority of his team seemed to be budding psychopaths.

As frustrated as he was, he allowed a small smirk to cross his features. He guessed teaching wasn't as dull as it had at first seemed.

Well, enough was enough.

What was the best way to get a rat to come out of its nest?

Smoke it out of course.

Asuma quickly tore through a series of complex hand seals.

"Fire Release: Burning Ash!"

XXXXX

Naruto stood his ground against his smiling opponent. His base instincts were screaming at him to run away. But he wouldn't, because he could hear the panting of Sasuke and the slow deliberate breathing of Sakura behind him.

He was the first line of defense.

He could not break.

A cloud of what appeared to be Smoke rose from the direction of the bandit campsite, distracting Naruto momentarily. He only moved his eyes from his opponent for a moment, big mistake.

When he looked back to the enemy shinobi, he was gone.

Naruto felt the displacement of air beside him as the enemy ran right past him.

A blow to the chest, more powerful than anything he had been hit with before, sent him crashing into a tree. He lost his grip on his sword and he had trouble breathing. The blond couldn't move to re-engage the enemy, he could only watch in what felt like slow-motion.

The enemy rushing towards his team.

The man smacking Sasuke in the face with a palm strike, sending him flying back into a tree, where the boy lost consciousness,

The shinobi turning to Sakura, who had two kunai drawn in hand, smirking and telling her something Naruto couldn't understand. He helplessly watched in as he drew a kunai of his own and _moved_, faster than Naruto could follow.

Sakura fell, a kunai stuck in her chest, a look of shock and disbelief plastered onto her face. 

Time slowed down even more, as Naruto clearly saw every drop of blood floating to the ground.

So, this was it? The end of the road, he was soon to be dead. If Asuma could have come to help them, he would have done so already. Now, even _if_ he was alive, he wouldn't be able to deal with both of the missing nin.

They were dead.

He would never make the old man proud.

Sasuke would never bring his brother to justice.

Even Sakura would now never be able to become the kunoichi she wanted to be.

The world was so sad.

And simply because he lacked power.

So very, very sad.

It's rumored that when you're close to death, your entire life flashes before your eyes.

Naruto's life did not flash before his eyes.

Instead, just one sentence came. One line, in the voice of the most important person in his life, the _only_ important person in his life. The old man. A small voice murmured voice inside him whispered this was not true, he had more people to care about, but he paid it no attention.

-on't… di-...

"He's too strong..."

Don't die.

"I-I can't do anything.."

Don't die, don't die.

"He's _overwhelming!_"

Don'tdiedon'tdiedon'tdie.

Naruto could see the man calmly walking over to Sasuke, checking to see if he was still alive, soon after nodding in satisfaction. He could see the man glance at Sakura one last time with a small, arrogant smirk before ignoring her, as her body drained of its' precious blood.

DON'TDIEDON'TDIEDON'TDIEDON'TDIE!

This was the end. Naruto could never again return to Konoha. He could never again talk with the old man. Without meaning to, he also though how he could never again have lunch with Asuma, he could never again train with his team, he could never again joke around with Sasuke, he could never again make Sakura feel embarrassed.

This was the end.

He could see the man slowly stalking towards him. He could see him talking, but the blood pounding in his ears prevented him from comprehending the words.

This was the end.

He could see the man take aim at his neck with his hand in a chop position, wanting to knock him out.

This was the end.

.No…

This was the... **NO!**

Naruto's hand shot up, catching the blow.****

With a roar that challenged both heaven and earth, something inside him broke.

Naruto's fragile psyche shattered.

All rational thought was swept away, leaving one objective rebounding in the blonds mind, over and over again.

**I will kill him!**

Because I want to live….because he hurt them.

**I **_**will**_** kill him!**

Slowly, very slowly Naruto rose, feeling his body fill with a foreign power. Leaving him feeling like death reincarnate.

He could feel his body changing, the marks on his cheeks thickening, his teeth growing and sharpening, his eyes morphing into dark slits.

He flexed his hands, marveling at the energy flowing throughout his body, at the sheer power of its' very presence.

He raised his head to stare into the eyes of his enemy, of the soon to be dead man standing before him.

The man had stopped moving, speechlessly transfixed by the sight before him. Gaping in awe of the power Naruto was radiating.

The blond smirked with malicious glee. Yes, he _should_ feel fear. He _should_ feel **AWED**.

This feeling was great. He wanted to feel _more_.

With a start, the man pumped as much power into his legs as he could and jumped away from Naruto.

The beast of a boy growled before letting out another ear-rupturing roar.

_He_ was not going to die.

But there _was_ going to be death in this forest today.

Without another thought, Naruto rushed forward, wisps of red streaking behind him.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello and welcome to the next installment.  
>First of all I'd like to get a round of applause for IncludeYourBanana, my wonderful beta, who did wonders with the chapter. Other than that I really don't have much to say this time around, except that any input is highly appreciated (and makes me feel good about myself, go figure).<strong>

**Until next time,  
>Simon<strong>


	9. Finishing touches

Naruto rushed forward in a blind furry, wanting nothing more than to into tear the flesh of the retreating enemy before him. To show him fear, to show him the extent of the mistake he had made, by coming after him.

The blonde was fast, much faster than he had ever moved before, running on instinct alone. A moment passed and he was already upon his enemy, lashing out wildly without form or reason, every swing heavy.

The missing nin was still in shock. This child, who moments before had been on the brink of death, was now attempting to eviscerate him. The ninja had to desperately dodge and weave around the blonds attacks, each of which could easily rend flesh and break bone.

More shocking still was the aura that he was sensing from the boy. It was an overwhelming, almost palpable, desire to kill. The orange chakra that came out in fumes from the Konoha nin was unfamiliar, something a normal human should not have possessed.

And there was madness in his slit eyes. An animalistic bloodlust, beyond what humans should be capable of feeling.

In short, this battle had taken a turn for the worst. Cursing, the missing nin regretted his decision to not simply kill the blond earlier and be done with him. Thankfully, the fight still seemed to be in his favour. He didn't have any openings to allow the use of jutsu, though didn't need any- the blonde was fighting without style, without thought, aiming only to immediately connect. Slowly the feelings of fear and panic previously brought on by the boy's changes, began to fade.

If Naruto had still possessed a sense of reason, he would have recognized the face of the nin steadily morphing, from fear to something else entirely. Contempt.

"Is this it?" he said, more to himself than to the blond, all the while dodging the sloppy, haphazard swings of the blonde "Where is the warrior that was fighting with thought and cunning? Where is your blade? Is _this_ what you have been reduced to? Some _animal_?"

The nin sidestepped yet another wide punch, grabbed the blonde's hand, and threw him a good 10 meters away. With a sneer, he went through a short set of hand-seals before slapping his hands on the ground. Walls arose from the ground, trapping the savage boy in an earth box. Dull scrapping could be heard from within as Naruto mindlessly clawed at the walls, his finger nails bleeding and breaking only to be healed instantly by the strange power he was exuding.

"Pathetic! You don't deserve respect boy." the missing nin mocked, the distaste clear in his voice "Humans are deserving of respect for their skill" he started a new set of hand-seals "while animals, need to be **put down!**"

More hand-seals followed before the hand of the missing nin was placed on the steadily eroding trap from which roars of fury and madness could be heard. At first nothing seemed to happen. But soon the roars of rage transformed into howls of pain. The walls of dirt crumbled revealing the blond pinned to the ground, pierced by a multitude of earth spikes. Blood seeped into the surrounding ground, his wounds healing and reopening as the boy thrashed around, without any successful result.

"Be glad that you have this inhuman regeneration boy." the nin said, a deep frown on his face "Few are lucky, or perhaps _un_lucky, enough to survive this."

Slowly the boy's struggling started dying down. His eyes turned back to the recognizable crystal blue once more as the strange chakra dissipated, with almost a sense of reluctance. With it, the feeling of dread and power disappeared too, leaving a child, beaten and broken, bleeding out on the ground.

Hopeless...

XXXXX

The mind of one Uchiha Sasuke was a strange, dark place. Few were privy to his thoughts and even fewer would understand them.

Even on his best days, the raven-haired boy was not among those who understood.

And now the boy dreamt. He knew that there was something important going on, at this very moment, but the knowledge was far away. Inconsequential to him.

After all, the dream world was rarely bothered by the real world.

Darkness surrounded him, with patches of blood and voices screaming in terror and pain. Blood sprayed around him, but he could not move, could not help. He was powerless, as always.

Being familiar to a nightmare did not make it any less horrifying.

Moments after, which had felt like an eternity to the child, the screams stopped.

Only darkness remained.

And in the darkness two eyes, blood red, opened. Eyes, that he knew only all too well.

The eyes of the one who had made him what he was today.

His _brother_.

Those eyes made him thrash in anger, though he had no body. Those eyes made him bellow with rage, though he had no mouth.

There was mocking in those eyes. Contempt and pity, for the weak little boy who could only watch as his world burned around him.

"Still weak." came the disembodied voice, in an infuriating monotone, emotionless and uncaring. "Once again you can only watch as everything burns around you."

Sasuke tried moving, tried speaking. Anything, anything at all to prove that man wrong. He would have died a thousand times over before. Now though, he would not let this man step all over him.

"So very, very weak." the voice came again.

"Won't you try this time?" the monotone broke, this time, the voice gauging.

"Or will you be late once more?"

The voice silenced, the eyes went away. With one final push the darkness went away, replaced with crushing pain.

A moment passed and Sasuke realized that he was now awake, the source of the pain being the impact he made with the tree. His head was hurting, his vision was swimming. He could barely move, bruised beyond belief, his chakra almost depleted.

Slowly he turned his head. He saw nothing, at first, his eyes unaccustomed to the darkness. Soon his eyes could see once more. And the scene before him horrified him.

There was the form of Sakura, lying on the ground barely moving, her pink hair splayed out wildly, her breathing slow and shallow.

There was Naruto lying on the ground, seemingly peaceful, with the enemy nin standing next to him talking. He couldn't make out the words, but then again, he just could not bring himself to care.

Because he could see _why _Naruto was laying still on the ground.

Spikes of what appeared to be rock were skewered through his hands, his legs, his torso.

Naruto, his only friend in the world, laying in a pool of his own blood.

The only one who understood him and the one he understood best.

He was too late.

_Again._

Once more he looked on at someone close to him, dead, without being able to do anything about it.

Some unnamed man, who fought and killed for nothing more than money, had taken away his only precious person.

**Again!**

Tears welled up in the Uchiha's eyes, tears of rage and sadness.

Tear of hopelessness.

The boy tried moving, but his body betrayed him, exhaustion and pain too great to overcome.

Still he refused to just sit there when the one who had wronged him was within sight.

He tried to get up, but his body refused.

It was relatively well known in the Uchiha clan that their bloodline, the Sharingan, was unlocked by moments of extreme emotion. There was not a specific set of circumstances, skill or age that caused it to manifest.

Sasuke again tried to move his body, his whole being screaming in protest with the attempt as he began willing any strength he had left, to come to him now.

When a clan member was pushed beyond their limits, when placed in a situation with no escape and no hope, their eyes would unlock, bringing with them a great and terrible power.

Finally, _finally_, his body moved. Sasuke stood on unsteady legs, glaring daggers at the enemy standing before him. He could feel a dull, burning sensation behind his eyes, his head pounding more than ever. He thought it was the effects of the impact and the last of his tears.

He was wrong.

It was his bloodline, which had morphed his pupils into twin orbs of crimson, with two tomoe like shapes at the center of each pupil, madly spinning. His mind had also jump-started, shifting into overdrive as his brain received alien information at an advanced rate, from the eyes.

And then suddenly all the pain stopped. All thought was erased, time itself seemed to halt.

Sasuke's gaze swept over the battlefield, drinking in every detail.

He saw Naruto's sword, lying on the ground in front of him, right in the middle of the path he would take.

His body started moving.

He could see his enemy in front of him, still talking, his vision not registering the Uchiha heir coming for his life.

Sasuke ran, his form slouching lower and lower.

The boy grabbed the sword in his right hand as he passed it, grasping it in a reverse grip. Brandishing it in front of him, he continued his charge, red eyes burning with purpose.

Finally the missing nin turned, but it was too late.

Using all the momentum he had accumulated, Sasuke swung the blade.

The man could only raise his hand in defense.

Steel met flesh.

Flesh lost.

The blade cleanly severed the missing nin's left arm, the blade continuing its arc, a trail of blood following it through the air.

An inhuman shriek tore it's way from the throat of the man. He desperately lashed out with his right arm, back-handing the Uchiha away from him. The boy flew back, landing harshly on the ground.

Without delay, the man took out a length of metal wire and clumsily tied it tightly around the stump of his left arm, using his mouth to pull the other end. He then turned his murderous gaze to the fallen raven-haired boy, who was desperately trying to get up.

Slowly, swaying slightly from the sudden loss of blood, he made his way to the boy.

Sasuke tried to lift his right hand, which was still holding the blade.

The man stomped on his barely lifted forearm, breaking it with a sickening crunch. Sasuke screamed in terrible pain.

The sword lifelessly fell to the ground.

The missing nin turned his ire to the blade, also stomping on it, also breaking it.

He crouched down, looking directly into the pain-clouded eyes of the fallen boy before him.

"The Sharingan?" he said between clenched teeth "You would have fetched a nice price, Uchiha."

He drew a kunai from his pouch with his remaining hand, arching the blade for the boy's throat.

"Too bad, you die **NOW**!"

The kunai swung down, aimed to lodge itself in the boy's throat.

Sasuke closed his eyes in resignation.

He felt something wet and sticky fell on his face, but he didn't feel any pain.

Slowly, the boy opened his eyes.

Before him was the missing nin still, his eyes wide and a trail of blood trickling from his mouth.

And an ethereal green blade, sticking through his chest, exactly where his heart was located.

The blade ceased to exist, seemingly disappearing into thin air. Something flung the man aside revealing Asuma, cut and bloodied, but alive with his trench knifes at the ready.

"Help... them..." was the only thing Sasuke could think to say before his body finally succumbed to the pain and gave out. The exhaustion and pain proving too much for him as his consciousness again faded into the darkness.

XXXXX

Asuma looked around the clearing. There were obvious signs of battle scarring the surrounding area. The bodies of his Genin lying on the floor reminded him of the many scenes of carnage that he had witnessed during his life.

It was not a pleasant reminder.

With an almost robotic like manner he checked on both Naruto and Sakura. Thankfully both of their vitals checked out positive, if only barely.

Sakura had lost a fair amount of blood, but not enough to be dangerously life threatening - the kunai had missed her heart which meant he would just have to stem the flow of blood.

Naruto on the other hand was in critical condition. The moment the enemy had died, the spikes piercing the boy's body had disintegrated with him, leaving him with many gaping holes littering his body.

Every jounin was required to be somewhat experienced in field of first aid, so Asuma did his best to clean and bandage their wounds. Neither Sakura nor Naruto were bleeding too badly, but he had to hurry to Konoha, or it might be too late for both of them.

He turned to Sasuke, who was seemed to be in the best condition of the three of them, his arm being the most serious wound he could see.

As he set the broken limb, his mind started to wonder. His team had survived, if barely, against a vastly superior opponent. The jounin had tried to finish his own battle as fast as he could, but his opponent had been tricky. He eventually managed to catch up to him, but he had taken much too long for his liking.

As he began racing in the direction of his genin, he had sincerely thought that he would find them dead. He thought he would be hunting a missing-nin to take revenge for the death of his team. That he would have to come back to the village carrying the bodies of 3 of the most promising children he had ever seen.

But they had held off the enemy jounin, somehow. And they _would_ survive to see the next day; he would make sure of it.

A small trickle of pride wormed its way into his chest, despite the horrible situation his team was in.

His team was strong, and they would become stronger still.

They survived.

Quickly popping a soldier's pill in his mouth, he created two shadow clones, tasking each of them with transporting one of the genin, as fast as they could, to the village. He himself took Naruto, careful not to aggravate his wounds.

He took off, much faster than the speed they had embarked on the way to the forest.

Soon they would be in Konoha.

Soon his team would have help.

Soon everything would be ok.

But something told him that the problems, had only just begun

XXXXX

Naruto awoke to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling.

Remembering his fight, he immediately tried to get up, but the sharp pain racking his body made him reconsider the action. Slowly he bent his neck, turned his head. He was in some sort of hospital room it seemed. With bright light streaming through the window in front of him, illumination the rather plain looking room. The walls were painted white, which combined with the light coming from the window made for quite the blinding display. The room itself was very empty – aside from the bed on which the boy way, there wasn't much furniture. One chair, probably for visitors and a painting showing an unfamiliar landscape.

The door gently opened. Naruto turned his head to the sound and saw the Hokage enter, followed closely by a man dressed in the standard medic-nin gear.

The Hokage, seeing that Naruto was now awake, nodded briefly to the man who bowed and closed the door as he left room leaving the two shinobi alone.

Sarutobi took a chair next to the bed of the injured boy and sat down gingerly, his age clearly showing in his movements. But there was still an unexplainable grace to them, sign of a lifetime spent training his body for battle.

"Hello Naruto," the Hokage said, not unkindly "how are you feeling?"

"Hey old man." Naruto groaned with a rusty voice, his throat dry and haggard.

The Hokage chuckled ever so slightly at this and handed Naruto a glass of water from the bedside table, which was gladly received and drank in one go.

Now feeling much better, the blond managed a weak smile, glad to see the man before him. Glad to be counted amongst the living.

"I see that you are well enough. Surprisingly you are the first one to wake up." the man said displaying how tired and old he was "Unfortunately, despite your just having woken up, I have to ask you exactly what happened, in your own words."

Naruto, quickly set aside the feeling of slight worry at the mention of his teammates having yet to wake up before briefly and accurately retelling the events of the mission.

How they had reached the bandit camp and started observing it.

Their first kills.

How everything had gone so well.

About the two missing nin they had then encountered.

How they ran,

how they fought,

how they had…..failed.

When it came time to inform him about when he had stood up, strange power pouring from him, he hesitated. He vaguely remembered how he had fought.

The intoxicating feeling of absolute power.

The need to kill and destroy…

But this was the old man, he would understand.

He always did.

"And then I felt... strange, like nothing could stop me. But it wasn't really me. I couldn't really think, I just so badly wanted to hurt him." the blond said, his voice little more than a whisper "I was so strong and fast. But he still beat me. I thought I was going to die.."

The blond lifted his head to meet the eyes of the man he considered a grandfather, unshed tears in his own blue eyes "Am,..am I weak old man? I tried and I _tried_ and I _**still**_ couldn't do anything."

The Hokage just looked at him for a moment, before starting.

"Naruto, you are very special. That... power you felt, _that_ is the thing you have wanted to know about." the old man said sighing. Hearing this Naruto instantly straightened, causing the old man to chuckle. "No Naruto, I'm still not telling you until you make chūnin."

"But I want you to think about something." Said Sarutobi, licking him lips before continuing.

"Yes, that power did make you strong and fast… But you couldn't think, you had no reasoning. Was that really you? You were acting like someone, likesome_thing_, different…. Yes, you might have lost, but you are _not_ weak. You survived. Your team survived. **That** is all that matters." The Hokage took a moment to collect his thoughts, before finishing the conversation

"Remember Naruto, You are yourself, you are strong, and you are _not_ alone."

The Hokage then stood up and made his way to the door, leaving the blond alone to think upon his words. Just as he was about to exit the room, he stopped and his demeanor changed as if he was just remembering something before he turned to the blond.

He reached into his robes and pulled something out before leaving it on the chair he had been sitting on moments ago.

"I believe this belongs to you. Rest easy Naruto, I will come back later."

The door shut behind him, as he left the room.

Naruto turned to face the chair.

The ninjato, which the Hokage had given him lay there, broken in two, its sheath missing.

He stared on at the two pieces of metal. At the broken pieces of what had been more than a sword for him.

Something inside him shifted, started to morph, to transform.

He had forgotten about the sword in his mad rush, in his indulgence of power and dominance, he had forgotten about it.

The sword that was had been a comfort, a link to the old man.

And it now lay broken.

Because he had forgotten.

The power had caused him to forget.

It would **not** happen again.

Simply, because he would not_ let_ it happen again. That power, whatever it was, would never again blind him.

And inside him, a new resolve was forged. Slowly, very slowly, he became like steel.

His blue eyes shone with a newfound purpose, with such intent that would have shocked anyone who had walked into the room at that moment.

With each heartbeat he changed.

And without him knowing it, as he drifted to sleep, content with the answers he had made for himself, he became the blade.

And _**never again**_ would it lay broken.

**Author's notes:**

**Phew, sorry for the delay, but real life caught up with me. Well, whatever, new chapter is up as of now, enjoy.**

**Many thanks to my beta IncludeYourBanana.**

**Cheers,**

**Simon**

**Author's notes:**

**Phew, sorry for the delay, but real life caught up with me. Well, whatever, new chapter is up as of now, enjoy.**

**Many thanks to my beta IncludeYourBanana.**

**Cheers,**

**Simon**

**P.S. Response to my story makes me happy (hint, hint).**


	10. And once again

Many considered the village of Konoha to be the strongest of the ninja villages throughout the land. It was praised for both the individual and average strength of the shinobi that made up their forces. And while their rivals might dispute that claim, calling the village weak and peace-loving, no one can deny the greatness of many shinobi that had called Konoha home. There were many legendary names, shrouded in both awe and fear that took their first steps behind the walls of the village.

It was with such thoughts that the current Team 7 was created. After the decimation of the Uchiha clan and the escape of Uchiha Itachi, the youngest of the Konoha prodigies, the village elders were anxious to show the world that the village has yet to show its best. The team had been put on an accelerated training program and quickly pushed into the field, while being expected to excel.

The Hokage had protested, of course. He had argued that the three children were still too young. They were not currently engaged in war, so there was no need for them to turn children into something beyond their years. He argued that at least two of the children were not only talented, but also broken, that they needed time to heal before they grew, or the wounds in their psyches would become irreparable.

He had been heard, and despite his wisdom, despite the years of service, he was promptly ignored.

For all their political knowledge and savviness, the village elders were short sighted. They saw the children as tools, powerful and strong. They saw tools that had to be used, for the good of the village.

But they forgot that even the best tool could break if not properly cared for. And when the tool was a human the break could be irreparable, even if that human was a shinobi. Because one could reforge a broken tool, but one could rarely reforge a broken mind.

There was one person in the council who knew that shinobi were the most complex tools in existence, tools that required constant repair and maintenance. Danzo, a crippled old man covered in bandages, seemingly tired and weak.

But of course this being the shinobi world, appearances are often misleading.

What gave away the man's true worth, was his one visible eye. Steel was soft compared to the look Danzo radiated. That one eye betrayed a cunning mind, an unwavering belief in his own ideals and before all, a dedication to Konoha matched only by the Hokage's love for the village.

In truth the two of them were much alike, the two sides of the same coin. One worked in light, the other in darkness. One received love and respect, the other loathing and fear. And Danzo had learned to live with that, a long time ago.

He would do what he must, for the continued safety of Konoha.

He was glad that it seemed the children who showed the most promise would receive the training they needed in order to leave their name etched in the world. And once they had come into their own mindset, once they had seen the world for what it was, draped in darkness and deceit, he would come to them and offer a way to serve without limit.

To work within the shadow.

Contrary to popular belief, the ROOT division of the ANBU was not without emotion, or blindly fateful to him due to conditioning. No, a completely emotionless shinobi was little more than a machine and were thus not as useful as they could potentially be. Even if it sounded ideal, Danzo had no use for machines with the only loyalty they held, belonging to Konoha.

But they had seen the world for what it was and refused to let the darkness swallow their homes.

And so, Team 7 was created. Of course there had been grumbling on the civilian council's side about allowing the "demon child", as they called the Kyuubi jailor, to be a shinobi, on the team of the last Uchiha no less. But the voices that rose were quickly silenced.

The clan elders were not such fools as to pass up such an obvious avenue to power.

The Hokage, had accepted defeat, but had assigned his own son, a man well known for following his father's ideas despite not quite seeing eye-to-eye with him. He had hoped that they could be spared the worst of the life of a shinobi.

Especially Naruto. The heavens seemed to amuse themselves by thinking of new and exciting ways to cause the child torment.

This of course, had not been the best development for Danzo. He wanted them to see the real world, not the illusion that his old rival had created and actually seemed to believe in.

That is why he was overjoyed when he heard of Mizuki's plot. Alone, the lowly chūnin could not have stolen the forbidden scroll, but Danzo had helped. The still loyal members of ROOT had made sure that the chūnin had the opening he needed and made sure that he was confronted by Iruka conveniently close to the searching Team 7.

And so, the team had witnessed treachery and death.

That of course, was not enough to open their eyes…but it was a start.

The month after was filled with daily reports of training and progress. They served only to reassure the council of their decision. Each of the new genin was a prodigy, progressing much faster than anyone could have hoped for. Even the constant complains concerning the Uzumaki by the civilians had stopped. No one knew, or cared, if this was due to them seeing reason, or whether they had decided to instead grumble in private.

Either way, it was a nice change of pace.

The month of mandatory training passed quickly and the team was sent on a relatively simple mission, which would still offer something of a challenge for them. Success was not only expected, it was a given.

And successful the mission was, as they learned some time later when Sarutobi Asuma had come back to the village with his genin in terrible condition.

The Jounin had given his report. The mission itself was perfectly ordinary and the genin performed admirably. Everything had seen fine, it had all gone well and there had been no sign of anything wrong.

In retrospect, that should have been the warning siren that everything would go up in flames.

The two missing nin that had attacked the team were formerly of Iwa. They had gone rogue after some minor argument with their team leader and had chosen to make quite a name for themselves in certain circles since. No one had questioned where they got the numerous people and corpses to sell, but it seemed _that_ particular secret was now uncovered. The shinobi that had stalled and ultimately been killed by Asuma had conveniently felt the need to tell him exactly how he and his partner made a living. The jounin himself never understood the habit of so many nin to talk with their enemy, but sometimes it was very useful.

In the end, the jounin had managed to reach his team in time and finish off the enemy. Asuma had reported his condition, which was confirmed by the autopsy performed after the two bodies had been brought in by hunter nin, with barely concealed pride. And he did have the right to be proud - the opponent had been an upper B, nearly A leveled threat, something way beyond the skills of the children. And yet they had survived and actually taken the man's arm from him.

Luck could be responsible for only so much.

The council was yet to know exactly how the battle between the genin and the missing nin had gone. The three were yet to wake up, despite being not being in health threatening danger. The only thing they had was speculation based on the landscape. It wasn't much, but it was the only thing they would get before the children woke up.

Of course someone had asked if the Uzumaki had used Kyuubi's chakra. Hate and fear ran deep in the hearts of men. Asuma had answered that he felt no such thing, though he was no sensor and he was a fair distance away.

Only Danzo noticed the frown that briefly crossed the Hokage's face.

For the state of the three, there had been a slight reprimand of Asuma, who had left his team alone, but no real fault was found with his orders or conduct. In fact, the successful extermination of two high ranked missing nin made the genin team look even more impressive. It was decided that the mission would be re-classified as A-rank, with the appropriate increase in pay coming from the bounty on the heads of the two, now dead, missing nin.

All in all it seemed that the team was not only meeting the expectations placed on them, but was actually exceeding them.

There, Danzo decided, could be worse things.

Now it was only a matter of time before he could add them to the true guardians of the village.

XXXXX

It was some time before Haruno Sakura managed to wake up. Of the three, her wounds had been the most lasting, mostly because of the monstrous healing capabilities Naruto seemed to possess.

But she did wake up. That in itself surprised her a bit. She had honestly thought that she was dead.

During the mission she was afraid and felt vaguely bad when dispatching the bandits. But seeing how... effortless her two teammates made it seem had motivated her to do her best.

She had not protested once and she had put on a brave face, constantly reminding herself that the bandits were definitely evil and that the world was a better place without them.

And it had worked, too. She had started feeling in control, bit by bit. And she was happy, because maybe now Sasuke or Naruto would praise her.

Sakura, despite her intelligence, had yet to realize how important that praise was becoming to her.

But then the two missing nin had come and everything had gone to hell.

She had followed Sasuke when Asuma ordered them to run, completely trusting in the power of her sensei. The killing intent that seemed to saturate the air around the missing nin, Asuma and Naruto only served to reinforce her decision. She had become better at resisting it, much better, but she was still afraid.

But she had been a brave girl and had not let the fear rule her actions. She couldn't let her team down after all.

But then one of the enemy shinobi had caught up to them and the fear had grown. But still she had not let it overwhelm her. She had trusted in the abilities of Naruto and Sasuke, in their training, in their plans.

She had been brave and had done what she must, watching as Naruto, a boy she instinctually feared, fought against a man who treated him like a fun little distraction.

She had played her part perfectly, letting Naruto know where she and Sasuke were, allowing Sasuke to use his jutsu. She had healed Naruto as best as she could.

She had been brave, and for a moment Sakura thought that they had won and everything was fine.

But she had thought wrong, the enemy was still alive. She tried to steel herself, while Naruto stepped forward protectively. He had wanted to buy time for his team. Sakura was grateful for that, because it was becoming increasingly harder to stay brave.

And then, in the next moment, there had been a flicker of movement, and a pain in her chest.

She had looked down, and had seen a kunai sticking out of her chest. If she could, she would have screamed. Instead she bonelessly fell to the ground, tears of fear and pain falling from her eyes.

She was afraid...

She didn't want to die….

Then there was darkness, with the occasional flash of awareness…

And now she was awake in a hospital room back in Konoha, with bandages covering her chest.

The medic quickly told her what her injuries were and that she was expected to stay in the hospital for another week. She had asked, meekly and quietly, if the wound would scar.

The doctor had looked at her. If she had looked back, Sakura would have seen the look of pity in his eyes.

It was a good thing then that she did not look.

For the look of pity being sent at her could have broken her.

The medic nin had answered in the affirmative and had left with the promise of telling her parents that she was awake.

And for a time Sakura was left alone in the bare room, with nothing to do but think.

The truth is that she should be feeling bad and scared. She had survived due to luck and it was only her first mission, her first time out of the village.

She had fought, killed, nearly died and she would now have a scar that would forever mar her flesh. It would never let her forget, for the rest of her life.

She should be scared and frustrated.

But she wasn't.

She'd faced death, and it wasn't that scary anymore.

Sakura then laughed, quietly. Maybe now she'd have a better resistance to killing intent.

The door to her room opened and faster than she thought possible, Sakura was entrapped in a hug, her mother crying in a high pitch voice. Her father entered, smiling kindly at her.

After a while her mother stopped sobbing, and began telling the pink haired girl how worried she was thus starting another round of tears.

Then….she moved on to something completely different and entirely unpleasant.

"Sakura, you must quit!" she said, her voice rising above what was publicly acceptable. The girl's father placed his hand over her's, calming his wife slightly.

"It's entirely too dangerous. Look at what happened the first time you went on a mission. You almost died!" she said, controlling her voice this time.

"But I didn't die. See, everything's fine, I'm not even going to be in the hospital that long." Sakura answered after a moment's hesitation. She had thought about quitting for a moment, right after waking up, but she found out that she couldn't. It would be entirely too sad to quit after just one month, especially now when she was finally feeling useful.

Of course her mother wouldn't understand.

And maybe she was right.

Sakura had almost died and that was a scary situation for a parent.

But the word 'almost' was what was important here.

The girl and her mother proceeded to argue, the volume of their voices increasing gradually until a nurse came and gently as well as a touch awkwardly, reminded them that they were in fact in a hospital. The only man in the room chuckled and the two stopped arguing in embarrassment.

Finally Sakura's mother left the room, promising that they would continue the conversation when she came back home.

"I'll convince her to leave you alone sweetheart." her father said, as he paused at the door "But please, at least think about it."

He soon left after that.

Sakura simply sighed, because she didn't need to think about it. She already knew perfectly well _what_ she wanted to do.

And she was already where she wanted to be.

Well… aside from the whole being in a hospital thing….

XXXXX

Uchiha Sasuke was getting a bit annoyed by the constant questions that he had to answer over the past three days by various adults. You would think that after giving an official report and answering one set of questions everything would be fine. But no, he seemed to draw an absurd amount of questioning.

Sometimes he wished he had Naruto's luck.

The boy was still in the hospital with an extreme case of chakra exhaustion. He could barely move and was feeling bad generally all around.

The absurd amount of get-well gifts and cards were especially annoying. He could probably live it down if they came only from the various girls that followed him around, but he had received some... _interesting_ presents from other people. Just imagining what Naruto would say about _that_ made him groan in despair.

Sasuke had mixed feelings when it came to the mission.

He was understandably extremely happy, because he had finally unlocked his Sharingan, despite not being able to really play arou- …_train_, with it due to his distinct lack of chakra. His bloodline was sure to accelerate his progress even further. In short things were looking up, at least somewhat.

On the other hand, he had almost died. His friends (and he was surprised that Sakura was considered a friend, at least when she was acting seriously) had almost died.

And he couldn't do anything significant. He couldn't protect them. Hell, he couldn't even protect himself.

At that moment he felt that his brother, his goal, was as far away as the day of his departure.

It was almost funny, if he had been his old self, he would have probably blamed his friends, his sensei, the village, everyone and everything aside from himself. Finding excuses for his weakness.

But he wasn't the same. He knew that he needed time before he could become strong instead of lucky. He had a purpose and everything was in order.

Or at least it would be, when he got out of the hospital and resumed training with his team.

And if he could somehow burn all the cards before Naruto got his hands on them, well then, that would just be perfect. 

**Author's Notes:**

**Hello again dear readers.**

**First of all – sorry for the long wait, but life got in the way. You can expect new chapters around once a week from now on.**

**This chapter pretty much closed this particular part of the story. Having said that, there will be three or four (depending on my ability to think of something for Asuma) concentrating on a specific character in something of a slice-of-life genre. After that updates will stop for a week, before going into the next arc.**

**On another note, the currently posted chapters are getting an overhaul.**

**As always, many thanks to IncludeYourBanana for his help.**

-IncludeYourBanana- Always glad to be of service :D !****

**Cheers,  
>Simon<strong>


	11. From Down till Dusk Part 1

Naruto woke up with a faint sense of wrongness that had followed him for some time. A week had passed since his team's mission, which had gone spectacularly wrong, and during that time he had been extremely bored. Honestly, the week seemed to drag on a good two months from his perspective.

The feeling of boredom itself was strange. There were few times in his life that he could remember ever feeling bored, most likely due to his constant training. He simply did not have the time to be bored, and yet even though he still trained just as hard, if not harder, he was still bored.

Naruto was not stupid and he himself knew why such things had started making their way into his otherwise disciplined and disconnected being. Like most of the things in his current life, this too could be attached to the existence of his two teammates.

It was still something he was trying to wrap his head around. Yes, Sasuke had been around for a long time, but it was unbelievable just how much closer the two boys had become over past few months. It was, well…. to be expected he supposed, seeing as how they had spent most of their time together, but it was still unbelievable for him.

What was stranger still, is the fact that Sakura had also become someone he considered a friend. In the Academy she had always been part of the background, to put it lightly. When she wasn't, the impression she gave off wasn't great. Naruto considered himself to be a fairly good judge of character and thus would have loved nothing more than to be able to say that he knew all-along Sakura's character would make a complete turnaround... but that would be a complete lie.

Ever since becoming a genin, she had showed dedication, determination and talent far above anything he would have thought her capable of, and that had impressed him greatly.

So, Naruto had friends. It was a strange realization, one the old man would surely be happy for. He had always talked on about how he should act more social and how he shouldn't spend his entire time training, which was crazy talk - Naruto was destined to be a shinobi, might as well be the best. To ensure his survival, of course.

Thinking upon his choice of career leads us to Naruto's constant problem of this past week, a thought which had pestered his mind so much that Asuma had excused him from today's training. Which was a completely ridiculous notion, seeing as how Naruto would simply train on his own for the day? The truth probably being that the jounin had a date and thus wanted his day freed up.

Silly Asuma, thinking Naruto couldn't see right through him.

And yet the thought remained. He was too weak. Not compared to other genin of course - he was fairly sure that from the current Genin forces he, and his team come to think of it, were easily in the top 10%. He was a Konoha shinobi, surrounded by legends - few villages had managed to create as many high caliber shinobi as his had.

….and yet, a simple duo of missing nin had brought him to the brink of death, forced him into a state beyond reason, caused him to lose control.

Ergo, he was too weak.

How-ever, there was little he could do about it at the moment. Training was all fine and good, a staple of every shinobi's power, but Naruto knew perfectly well that any substantial improvement, and real jump in skill was made in battle. Where you constantly walked the line between life and death, where your senses are on the edge and everything besides you and the opponent stop mattering. That was where talent shined, and that was where skills grew.

However, life and death battles usually don't happen whilst one is on leave, which meant that for the moment, he was stuck, and that was boring him.

A small beam of light shone directly into the lidded eyes of the blond, who lay on his bed pondering his lot in life, causing him to twitch with irritation. He opened his eyes fully and yawned, taking a look around his admittedly empty apartment. Aside from the expected bed and small table, the appliances in the small kitchen, a shelf filled with scrolls and weapons, there was nothing. Even Sasuke had reprimanded him for the lack of personal possessions. Naruto had been confused, because….. well… this was _Sasuke_ - he didn't exactly seem the nostalgic type. The other boy had grunted at the accusation, saying that even he had some mementos from his family. Here Naruto had been even more confused, how was _HE _going to have such things?

Meh, besides he had his sword, which he thought was all the personal possessions he needed.

Sasuke had given him a blank look, but hadn't argued further.

After taking a quick shower, getting dressed and eating breakfast, Naruto went over to his weapons with polishing oil, a rag and sharpening stone in hand. Many people considered caring for their weapons to be tedious and annoying, but Naruto found it calming, especially while caring for his sword.

He felt more connected with the old man with every careful stroke over the blade.

Slowly, with meticulous care, Naruto dragged the sharpening stone over the edge of the sword. He probably wouldn't need it today - hell, he hadn't even used it since the last mission, but it was protocol - every shinobi had to be ready for battle at all times.

It was a good rule. A logical one.

Quickly, seeing as how the blade had been unused, the edge was sharpened and Naruto returned the tools to their rightful place. He secured the blade in its scabbard, placing it on its usual spot resting against his lower back. Next were the kunai and shuriken of his hip pouch. Lastly, he placed his still unmarred forehead protector in its rightful place, which as always brought a small quiver of excitement, because he was a shinobi, but he was also a child, and his job was _sooo_ damn cool! 

Naruto walked out the door, noticing with a sense of detachment that the hallway had new graffiti sprayed all over it. The boy had long since become accustomed to the fact that the village as a whole did not like him. It wasn't like it bothered him - continuous disregard could be effective up to a point and no further. Not to mention that he had, with his own skills and methods, become what he strived for. Partially for now, but in full as soon as possible.

And so, the graffiti (monster, demon, go die) did not bother him anymore. He did not know _why _he was hated, did not know _what_ he had done to turn the most of the village against him. For him every scribing on his wall, every glare, and every not-quite-whisper was a testament of the total lack of logic in these so called normal people.

Was it because he was a shinobi, albeit still a child, but never the less someone who could be hired out for assassinations and the destruction of small villages?

And that was what really puzzled Naruto. How could a civilian, who had lived their entire life in a world filled with shinobi, in a village filled with shinobi, hate him for being a shinobi? They adored the Hokage; they sung prizes for the great exploits of certain shinobi of their village, as if they themselves had done them. They respected even the lowest of low in the ranks. The shinobi clans were the envy of everyone. And yet they conveniently forgot how much death, on average, a shinobi had to deal with in their career.

Naruto had looked it up, it was 133 casualties.

On average every shinobi, over the course of their career, killed one hundred and thirty three people, be it enemies or innocents, be it for the sake of their village or for money.

And Naruto had wondered why that was acceptable for the general public, because it obviously was. What was the crime he had committed to be branded a monster and a demon?

But in the end, it didn't matter. He did not yet know the reason, but he would, once he became a chūnin (and that would be soon, or god help Asuma and every other person standing in his way). And when he did, he would probably find the reason for all the discrimination hilarious in its absurdity. And he would still be him, because he had promised himself, that day, in the hospital.

If there had been someone in the hallway at that moment in time, with Naruto standing before his door staring thoughtfully at the graffiti on the wall lacking his usual smile, then they may have noticed a slight stirring in the air. _Something_, not quite killing intent, but not quite chakra, was there, spinning protectively around the blond. They would have noticed that the air around him was tainted with a slight metallic taste, a sense of almost audible sharpness ringing from him.

But there was no one else there and Naruto himself did not notice it, of course. How often does one notice subtle changes in a part of ones-self?

With a slight shake of the head, Naruto ascended the stairs towards the roof of his building, his usual expression of slight amusement steady on his face. He had always preferred traveling on the rooftops of the village. It was inconspicuous - no one would notice yet another one of the village's protectors traveling somewhere in a hurry. And besides, the village itself was beautiful from up there.

Soon the blond found himself at his intended destination - one of the more remote training grounds of the village that was still accessible to genin. People rarely came here - there was nothing particularly special about the place and it was far enough to be inconvenient for most.

That suited the boy just fine.

For a while now, Naruto had started trying to feel for the chakra of his fellow shinobi of the village and had discovered an interesting fact that was, in retrospect, completely obvious - most of the more experienced shinobi actively suppressed their power, even in their home village surrounded by friends. After all information was gold and the most effective weapon in the shinobi world is the weapon your enemy does not know about. There was little point in trying to intimidate someone by constantly slinging around large amounts of chakra. In fact, it was stupid. If the enemy underestimates you, you have an advantage. If your enemy doesn't know your true strength, you have an advantage.

If the enemy attacks thinking you are easy prey, the enemy often ends up dead.

And so, Naruto had dived into his substantial collection of scrolls, looking for a way to hide or at-least _suppress_ his chakra. After all, he had more than most, a lot more than most, a fuck-ton more than most. And that would be like a shining beacon for any half decent sensor. He couldn't have a perfectly well planned ambush fail because he couldn't hide his chakra signature properly, especially since he took such pride in his stealth skills.

And so he had found a method, which seemed to be extremely simple. That in itself filled him with dread - most things that sounded unbelievably simple in theory were unbelievably hard in practice, and took an inordinate amount of time to perfect.

The technique itself was the opposite of preparing ones-self for a jutsu. Instead of flaring your chakra and expelling it from your body, you had to repress it as much as possible and imprison it completely within your body. There was no clear explanation of how exactly one did that, because it was probably assumed that a teacher would be there to guide the student through the process. Truth be told, Naruto could probably wait a day and ask Asuma about it, and try to do something different today.

But he wouldn't. Asuma had enough on his plate shaping them into the team they were supposed to be. The village had high expectations of them, and even higher from their sensei. The council had considered the last mission a glowing success (which Naruto would never acknowledge) - not only did they "complete the set parameters", but they had also "captured two quite notorious missing nin", spreading the fame of Konoha further. That of course meant that every mission from here on out would have to be perfect - when you outperform consistently, the above average becomes the norm. And that was a scary thought for Naruto, because if another disaster of a mission happened again, someone would die. And he wasn't sure what would happen then, what he would do, but he was sure that it would not be pretty.

No, he couldn't waste the times of the others. He would work on his flaws by himself, and he would fix them to adequate levels.

Looking around one last time, Naruto sat cross-legged in the middle of the clearing and closed his eyes. He turned his attention inwards and slowly all the background noise faded to nothing, leaving him in complete silence.

In many ways, this was similar to the days when he had painstakingly worked on his chakra control. He had to feel himself, the way that energy moved and swirled around in his body. To control it, you need to know it. To know it, you need to observe it.

He felt his chakra surging through-out his body, a river of energy. There was no color, of course, only feeling, but there was something strange about it. Even before, whilst he was still a child, he could feel something foreign in his system, something that was not quite of this world, something that felt wrong.

And he could still feel it now, much stronger than ever before. Whatever it was, it did not harm him, but it was different. If he had to make an educated guess, it had something to do with his "episode" during his last mission. Was it a bloodline which lay dormant until it was needed? No, if that was the case, the old man would have no problems simply telling him about it, instead of making him wait. It was definitely something else.

But really, there was no point in speculation right now. He would know when he was told and he would take it in stride. He trusted the old man and that trust could not be broken by a simple secret. The old man had to think of the entire village when he made each and every decision and Naruto would never forget that he still found the time for him.

And so ignoring the mystery, for now at least, the blond continued to observe the movement of the energy through him. Parts of it would escape through his skin at random intervals, sometimes small, sometimes big, with no evident pattern. He was sure that there was such a pattern, but he was equally sure that he still did not have the observational skills to notice it in such a short amount of time. And it the end, the pattern didn't matter much - he was looking for a start, not something that was completely effective energy wise.

Very carefully the blond began trying to slow and guide the flow of chakra inside him. It was a long process and it needed every scrap of concentration he could muster - the energy did not want to be contained, it wanted to be used.

Naruto did not know how much time he spent sitting in the middle of the clearing, oblivious to the world. Were he not in friendly territory, this would be pure suicide - he could be killed or kidnaped easily. Just as his concentration began to fail him, there was a slight nudge. Something seemed to click into place and the energy slowed, slightly. With every passing moment it slowed more and more, and less and less chakra escaped from his body.

And then, just for a moment, he became invisible to the world. No chakra escaped, the flow almost completely stopping.

Happiness crept its way into Naruto's conscious, happiness and success and the moment was gone, his chakra latterly exploding outwards in a ring, like a soft breeze of wind, going farther and farther until it finally stopped.

XXXXX

A man, dressed in standard shinobi clothing that remained a bit loose in some places, was kneeing in front of a heavily reinforced door, studying it intently.

The door was the last obstacle that he had to go through as to acquire the valuable scrolls inside. Of course, he had no idea what the scrolls contained and why his client wanted them - he made it his business to ask as little questions as possible. He had been a part of the shinobi force of one of the smaller villages spread through-out the land, but after only a few years in service, he had fled, pursuing a solo career, mostly because he felt that he did not get his just due for the skills he possessed.

While having to offer little in the way of battle skill, he was a master of infiltration, break in and theft. The man was blessed with a keen chakra sense and had rudimentary knowledge in fuuinjutsu. Of course he had skills in more, well, traditional methods of theft. There was rarely a door that he could not open, should he have enough time and if the pay was right.

All in all, his life as an information distributor and thief-for-hire was more than satisfactory, especially when compared with the measly pay he acquired during his village bound days. But there were days when he missed the simple missions of his past. Days such as this one.

Because when one of your most important clients, not to mention one of the most wanted and powerful men in the world, came to you and demanded something, offering more money than you had seen for the last 3 years combined, you did not politely decline. You jumped at the chance.

In retrospect, maybe he shouldn't have let greed overshadow his common sense. This was a mistake many people in the business made. Making it did not lead to a long and prosperous life. But he had agreed, and he had to do it. In the underground circles, one's word was his lifeline. If you did not follow through with agreements, you could find yourself without any clients very soon. Or, if your luck was bad, dead in the middle of nowhere.

Infiltrating Konoha, arguably one of the two most powerful villages at the moment had not been on his top 10 "Things to do before I die" list. More often than not, infiltrators got caught and their fate was not particularly pleasant. The few that had managed the feat, on the other hand, cemented their name, at least in the proper circles. Well, not proper, per-say.

Anyway, everything was going splendidly for now. He had planned the operation for months, close to a year even, coming in the village as a refugee, finding a place to stay, acting like a good citizen should and eventually managing to become an assistant cook for one of the barracks spread around the city. From there on it was a question of time and patience until he found a day when the guards of the particular building that he was currently raiding came out from their barracks. I was easy enough to slip drugs into their water, steal one of their uniforms and make his way into the building.

The door on the other hand was a much bigger challenge. He could see the fuuin matrix overlaid on it and it was one of the more complex things he had stumbled on in his day. That was not to say that he didn't know how to deactivate it - there wasn't a single fool-proof seal in existence and he had seen enough to make a reasonably accurate educated guess about this one.

The problem was in the precision required to bring this particular sealing array down. He thanked every deity that he had spent much of his youth sharpening his chakra control. Not one mistake was permitted here - it would quickly lead to an alarm sounding and his inevitable capture, interrogation and death - three things he was not partial to. And even if he did, by chance, manage to escape, a similar fate awaited him when he returned to his current employer empty handed. The man was not known for his mercy and understanding.

After examining the array from every angle he could think of, the man extended his hand and pushed a thin concentrated stream of chakra. Mapping the parts of the seal he had to "burn out" he pushed his arm forward.

His hand was as steady as any medic nin's and all was going well; if a bit slow for his tastes. Despite his frayed nerves, he did not allow his work to suffer from them - too much was at stake here.

Just as he was finishing removing the seal, he sensed something. It was a vague feeling, definitely human chakra, mixed with something that he had never felt before. What was surprising was the sheer amount of the energy, as well as how widely spread it was. One thing was for certain - it was not a living being that he felt.

But he was too close to back down, he only needed 15 more seconds and he could enter, grab the scrolls and leave.

Ten more seconds.

Five.

Two.

And then the wave, yes that was the best way to describe it, of chakra washed over him. His entire body stood on edge and his chakra flared, as if answering the challenge of the foreign energy.

Coincidently, that made the precise flow of chakra expands wildly for a moment.

The moment was enough for it to touch a part of the seal it shouldn't have.

An alarm sounded and the man was on his feet and running as fast as he could, already sensing the pursuers behind him.

His last thought before breaking out into a dead sprint was that Konoha had some interesting techniques available for capture.

XXXXX

Naruto toppled down on his back breathing heavily, not expecting anything of the sort to happen. The expanding ring of energy was almost visible for a moment, but soon it could only be felt.

It took a couple of minutes for Naruto to control his breathing and several more until he could sit up without shaking. This was dangerous - he had never used up such a huge amount of his chakra. It was also stupid - if there was an attack right now he would be in no condition to defend the village.

This, of course, was the reason why simple training could not push you to the edge of your skills. At the end of the day, Konoha was an active war camp and every shinobi, every soldier, had to be ready at a moment's notice. You could not exhaust yourself completely when training in fear that you could be needed at the very next moment. Only in battle you could give everything you have, could find your limits and then break through them, because if you didn't you died. But if you survived you were stronger for it. "What doesn't kill you..." indeed.

Naruto took a couple of more minutes to compose himself, before standing up and dusting himself. The sun was shining brightly over his head and he supposed it was about noon-ish. This was proven true further by the groan his stomach produced. This was not exactly how he had hoped his training would go. He knew he was no genius, but he had vaguely hoped that he could get this fast and move on to other things.

'Apparently my luck does not persist in truly important things,' the blond thought sighting slowly to himself.

Naruto looked up and flinched slightly going for his sword when he saw a figure standing nearby, leaning on a tree and looking at him with his hands in the pockets of his coat. The blond stopped mid motion when he recognized the person. It was his ex-classmate and now colleague Aburame Shino.

The two of them were never on particularly talking terms - both of them were loners that did not like communicating with others beyond what was necessary. They had been respectful of one another's skills and Naruto secretly envied the cold logic that the boy could use in seemingly any situation.

The high collar and sunglasses did not allow Naruto to read the other boy's face too well, but judging from his body language he was not aggressive. More like slightly amused and curious. This was a good point - Naruto would hate for his accidental discharge of chakra to be considered in any way aggressive.

The blond waved to the other boy, who nodded in acknowledgment. Having nothing better to do at the moment, Naruto approached the other boy, hoping to apologize for obviously disturbing him from whatever he was doing.

"Hello Aburame-san."

"Uzumaki-san"

"I apologize if I startled you. The discharge was not my intention. If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing here? This training ground is fairly remote and unpopular," Naruto said his voice tingled with faint curiosity.

The Aburame looked at the other boy for a moment, before removing his right hand from his pocket. On his fingers there was a bug Naruto was unfamiliar with, moving around slowly.

"I came to search for new species of bugs," Shino said in his trademark monotone. "Why here you ask? I had not searched here yet and as you pointed out, the training ground was fairly remote. Therefore it was highly unlikely that the natural habitat was compromised."

Naruto nodded at the explanation. It was common knowledge that the Aburame clan used bugs in many of their techniques. It was only natural that they would search for new species that they could use to further improve their clan's repertoire.

After a short silence Shino spoke again.

"Uzumaki-san, if I am not mistaken you were training in chakra signature suppression, were you not?"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow, somewhere between impressed and amazed. It was unlikely that he could have figured out precisely what someone was training on by a simple chakra discharge. His respect for the silent boy before him went up a notch.

"Yes, I was. How did you know?"

"It is common knowledge that my clan uses bugs as partners," the boy said, emphasizing the world partner. Naruto made a mental note of addressing the bugs as such when in the presence of an Aburame. "They are very adept at tracking chakra, which in turn makes us very adept trackers. One cannot be a tracker without being able to hide his own presence. It is one of the first thing my clan teaches."

"I see."

Shino stopped for a moment and seemed to think over something. In the end his face cleared completely, having come to a decision and he spoke again.

"Uzumaki-san, do you wish for help with your training?"

Naruto almost did a double take at the question. Very rarely did a shinobi who did not have a direct student-teacher relationship with another offer his help with techniques. You never knew who could be your enemy the very next day and secrets, ever one's that are fairly easy to find out, were kept tightly shut.

"I would be honored to receive your guidance Aburame-san," Naruto said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But why would you offer help? And what would you want in return?"

Shino frowned slightly, but otherwise remained impassive as he spoke.  
>"I do not desire anything in return. Why you ask? My father has the greatest respect for you, but he has never told me why it is so. Never the less I respect my father's opinion above all and it would be an honor to help someone who has his good graces," here the boy's face became openly curious, something completely unlike the stoic clan. "Also, the wave of chakra I felt was very large. I had always known that you were above average in chakra capacity, but I had not realized exactly how much. And also, there is something... strange about your chakra. With your permission I would like to investigate. Subtly, of course."<p>

Naruto was certain that this was the most he had ever heard the silent boy speak. It showed exactly how curious he was about the blond, which was not a bad thing - the Aburame were a respectable clan and had been allied with Konoha for generations. And Shino had been a classmate. It was safe.

"In that case Aburame - san, I would very much appreciate the help. But you must let me at least buy lunch for you. No deed should go unrewarded."

After a moment deliberation, the Aburame nodded and the two boys took off to the center of the town, speaking quietly about the theory of chakra suppression on the way.

A small bug flew out of Shino's sleeve and attached itself to Naruto's scabbard. The blond did not notice it as it started slowly draining small amounts of chakra.

Shino had said that he would investigate. Subtly. That was his forte, after all.

XXXXX

It was some time before Naruto parted with Shino. He had found it pleasant to talk with the boy - his logic and raw knowledge of the shinobi art was something to behold. The blond felt that he had made fairly good progress on the theoretical part of concealing his chakra signature. While he had the write general idea, there were some tricks and small hurdles that he would have to incorporate in his method, so as to not have a repeat of the day's accident.

The sun was already starting to set and Naruto still felt tired and sore, so he decided to forego any more training for the day, opting to use the free time that he was given.

Instead of going directly to his apartment, the blond went to the Hokage monuments, one of his favorite spots in the entire village. From there he could see the whole of Konoha, sometimes, with effort, even some of the people who were walking around the streets.

There was an unnatural calm about this place, Naruto felt, and it was one of the few places that he could be completely in peace. It made for a good change of pace from his usual hectic lifestyle.

As he was gazing around the village, a sound of something exploding took his notice. He looked down, concentrating and managed to spot a small running figure that was followed by a couple of dark clad figures. If he had to guess it was a spy that had been caught in the act and was now running for his life. He entertained the thought of going down and helping out, but decided against it, noticing two more figures appearing before the running shinobi.

Instead he way down, staring at the quickly darkening sky. All in all it was a good day. And with any luck, tomorrow he would have his team back and it would be even better.

**Author's Notes:**

**Wow, I had not realized that so much time had passed since my last update. I apologize, but after my exams I decided to have some "me" time that seems to have gotten away. Anyway, you can expect much shorter wait times between chapters from here on. There are two more similar chapters starring Sakura and Sasuke that are in the works. I have a general outline for both of them, so writing them out shouldn't be that hard.**

**Once again I want to thank IncludeYourBanana for his continued support as my beta, despite my less than stellar attitude over the last months. You rock :).**

**Cheers,  
>Simon<strong>


	12. From Down Till Dusk Part 2

Haruno Sakura woke up with a muffled gasp, tears welling in her eyes. She could feel a dull throb in her nightgown covered chest, where she could clearly imagine every detail of the scar she had recently acquired.

It wasn't her first scar, of course. She had been a child, and children get hurt, especially children who are training for a career in assassination and front line combat. She had a small scar on the outside of her right thigh from when she had fallen down from a sling onto some rocks. She had a small burn on her left index finger from when she had accidently touched a boiling hot pot. She had a small scar from a training kunai cut that had not healed properly. And before she had woken up at the hospital and saw the wound on her chest, the scars that marred her skin were something to be embarrassed about. After all she was a girl, and for a long period of time, she was a girl that had priorities - her looks and Sasuke first, everything else second.

Nowadays, this was no longer the case.

It was something that had been building for a while, ever since she had been assigned to a genin team. It had been a point of pride for her that she had managed to score high enough in the Academy to be put in the same team as Sasuke, who was without a doubt the class idol, the last Uchiha, possessing a powerful bloodline, and the most talented student in their year. And of course you could not forget Naruto. Naruto the outcast, who everyone seemed to hate without actually knowing why. Well, actually it was not everyone. Sakura was an observant girl and she had noticed that only kids from civilian families seemed to distrust him. But the truth was that everyone grudgingly respected him. He was the only one who could keep up with Sasuke. He was always polite, if just a little detached. He kept to himself and did not actively seek out company. And to everyone's amazement he was the only one in the entire class who was on friendly terms with the last Uchiha.

Of course she couldn't forget her Jounin sensei, and as she had later learned, the son of the Hokage, Asuma. She had only the highest respect for the man, not only for his skills and strength, but also for his attitude. From day one he had been nothing but fair and reasonable with them, if a little childish at times. He had never demeaned any of them, being quick to give praise when it was due, and even quicker to offer his help when it was needed. In many ways he was the best teacher she had ever had.

Sakura had been proud of her performance in the Academy. She was both proud and happy of being put into team 7. She had been confident that her grades would easily translate into her being an excellent shinobi and that finally, Sasuke would notice her.

That is, until she actually saw her two teammates in action…

Sasuke doing well had been expected. Sakura had and still firmly believe in his talent and now, more than ever looked up to him for it. No, the real surprise was Naruto. She had known he was strong, but actually seeing him fight had made a real impression on her. And this was without even mentioning the oppressive aura of death that she felt emanate from him.

She had looked up the so called "killing intent" in her free time. It wasn't really a technique or a similar trick. It was more of a manifestation of someone's willingness to hurt and kill. It was a chakra response more than anything, and one of the reasons why many considered chakra a living entity of sorts instead of simple energy. It was also mentioned that most shinobi did not start developing killing intent before their first kill because they had no real concept about taking a life.

All of this information had made Naruto's killing intent something of a mystery.

In comparison, Sakura's performance was nothing to brag about. She had done well, but she knew skill wise, she was leagues bellow both of her teammates. She had expected this of course - even she herself knew that she wasn't the greatest in practical application of the shinobi arts. How-ever, the sheer gap in skill between herself and her two team-mates made her question if she even wanted to continue trying.

The confusion about her life choices was a short lived notion though, for they had passed and she had found out that she actually had a place in a team considered to be elite. That she was hand-picked to be in a team that was fully expected to outperform the rest. It wasn't a responsibility that she could easily shrink away from.

The flash of Ino's mocking face if she _did _decide to quit helped her reach her final decision.

Sakura had thrown herself into training. It was exhausting and harder than everything she had ever done before, but the steady praise of Asuma, Naruto's silent encouragement, and the respectful glances from Sasuke had made it all worth it.

And she had indeed improved by leaps and bounds. She still wasn't that useful in a pure frontline battle, but her medical tutors had stressed that she had a tremendous talent in their field. And it was true - she found herself understanding and assimilating medical facts and procedures at a rapid phase.

Then the mission had come… It was horrible; she had killed and killed and killed with there being no end in sight. Finally at the end of it all, everyone in the camp was dead. She hadn't kept count of how many people she had killed. Her sub-consciousness had, and their pale, bloodied faces constantly flashed in her nightmares. But there was no time to mourn, to freak out, to fall into hysteria, because more people had come and they had not meant well.

During the month of intense training she had felt Naruto's killing intent more times than she cared to remember and was slowly but surely starting to develop an immunity for it. At the time, the aura of his intent only caused her to slightly shiver. She had thought that she was ready to face it in the field, she had been wrong. The combined intent of the adults and Naruto had almost caused her to fall down to her knees and start sobbing. She had just managed to hold firm, hiding her fear. It was a small point of pride for her.

And then they had retreated, leaving their sensei to fight against two opponents. She knew that there had been a very real possibility that he would die as she was running. So she had ran far faster than ever before, with adrenaline pumping throughout her veins, but of course that hadn't been enough.

Her next stable memory was staring at a ceiling whilst lying in a hospital bed before trying to sit up, only to gasp from a sharp pain from her chest. She had looked down her hospital gown and seen a thick layer of bandages. Then the doctors had come and there had been examinations, questions and _more_ examinations and _**more**_ questions.

Then she had healed and the bandage had been removed, and now she had a fresh red scar above her left breast. She had been lucky, the doctors said, because the kunai had missed the heart. There was no luck involved of course - she had heard the person that had stabbed her speak. She had been merchandise to him, her only value was in the money she brought him. And she would bring next to nothing if she were dead.

The scar was still red and fresh, the end of it could barely be seen peeking out from the collars of the type of clothes she usually wore. It made her feel self-conscious, because she had almost died, almost been carted off to some village to be experimented on, or something worse. She was fine now - she was home, in the village, surrounded by people who did not wish her bad.

But she was still tense and jumpy; she didn't think that she could ever be completely calm.

It was strange how much a single event could change your worldly views.

She had become a shinobi because Ino had unknowingly pushed her to it.

She had actually become competent because she had purpose and her team.

But she would become strong, because she liked to be alive, and to survive in this world was obviously not as easy as she had thought.

**XXXXX**

Sakura heard a light series of knocks against the closed door of her bedroom, much like every other morning from when she could remember. Her father made it a point to not leave for work before saying good morning to his little girl. He had been especially insistent ever since she had entered the Academy. Sakura could appreciate the sentiment now.

The pink-haired girl pulled herself up off her bed and swiftly entered into her routine of morning stretches that she had been doing ever since she had left the hospital. The doctors had insisted that she do them so as to eliminate any stiffness that might remain from the wound. It was interesting, but Sakura actually felt much better and wide awake after doing the exercises. She had even made it a point to research into something more than the basic Academy set and had constructed quite the elaborate routine. But honestly, she had never felt so free in her own skin.

She dressed far quicker than she would have thought possible even a month ago, paying little attention to the act. She had found herself caring little about her wardrobe as of late, something that had not escaped the notice of her mother if the disapproving looks were anything to go by. She wore a simple set of black, knee length shorts and a slightly formfitting red t-shirt, her simple work-out attire. Her hand hovered over her supply pouch and kunai bags, because technically she had one more day of being out of service, but she attached them anyway. It was always better to have shinobi tools on hand rather than being caught without them. Taking one last look at her rather innocent looking room, with her big mirror, sets of makeup and the large wardrobe of clothes, she made her way downstairs absently thinking how her room required a small redecoration.

Sakura entered her families' kitchen where could see that her mother and father had already started on their breakfast, both of them eating quietly, no doubt preparing a list of the day's work that had to be done.

She made her way over to her father, giving him a quick peck on the cheek, before grabbing a piece of bread from the table.

"Good morning dad."

"Good morning sweetie, sleep well?" Her father asked, turning his head to face her with a wide smile.

It was an innocent question and Sakura managed to keep the grimace off her face, instead smiling and replying.

"Like a baby dad."

"Good morning dear." her mother said before motioning to the chair next to her. "Have a seat."

The smile instantly disappeared from Sakura's face. She had learnt from past experience that the worlds 'have a seat' did not bode well for her when they came from her mother's mouth. Still, she sat down munching on the piece of bread, waiting for her mother to speak. She did not do so, seemingly thinking, periodically opening and closing her mouth before pursing her lips together. Her father seemed to have found his food very interesting for some reason, but Sakura knew perfectly well that he was paying attention to the inevitable conversation.

Finally, her mother turned to her and said exactly what Sakura was sure she would.

Exactly the wrong thing.

"Sakura, I want you to _**quit**_ being a shinobi," her mother said, with all the authority of a parent.

Sakura's father visibly flinched.

Sakura held back her immediate response, for it would not do to simply tell her mother to fuck off. She slowly counted to 10, pushing down the anger that raged inside of her. She knew perfectly well that her mother had never approved her choice of career and that she knew that she did only what she thought was best for her.

But quitting? No chance.

"No," Sakura said, in a perfectly even tone of voice that left no room for argument.

Her mother appeared visibly shocked. They had argued in the past of course, many times, but Sakura had never so completely disregarded her opinion. As if it were not worth anything.

"What do you mean _**no**_?" she hissed "You were _hurt_, you almost **died!** I've told you a million times that this is not a profession for a young lady! You _will_ quit and you _**will**_ start training for the day when you will pick up this families' business."

Sakura turned to face her mother, her face steely, blank of any emotion. Her eyes were a different story though. They held inside all the bottled anger and indignation that she was feeling hearing those words, when she understood exactly how little her mother respected her choices and wishes. The rage she was all so trying to bottle up.

"I said **no** mom, I will not be quitting," she looked down "I've already made my decision."

"Young lady, while you are living in _**my**_ house you will follow _**my**_ rules and respect _**my**_ wishes. You _**will**_ quit and that. Is. **final!**" Sakura's mother screamed in her shrill high pitched voice that Sakura herself had inherited.

Sakura stood up so quickly that the chair she had been sitting on was bowled over, the rage finally breaking out onto her face, with her finger stabbed towards her mother. Her mother wasn't tall by any means and whilst standing up, Sakura simply towered above her. The atmosphere in the room immediately changed as Sakura's anger caused her chakra to react and so a subtle sense of malice was felt hovering in the air. The young girl was too riled up at the moment to notice it, but when she did, she would be glad that she could now start training with Naruto in nurturing her budding killing intent.

"No, _mother_." Sakura hissed as she practically spat the word out, before continuing with her voice rising with each world "I am a **genin** of Konoha, which makes me legally an adult! You cannot order me to _DO_ anything. I will listen to you only if _I so choose_. You will _not_ try anything and you WILLstop bothering me on this topic or I swear, I will leave this house and you will _never_ see me again. **Is ****that ****understood!**" she finished her voice loud and filled with anger, but not shrieking like her mothers had been.

Sakura sent her father an apologetic before she stormed out of the room, leaving her mother spluttering in indignation. The last thing she saw before slamming the front door closed was her father softly talking to her mother.

She hoped he would convince her to see reason. She really didn't want to have to leave home.

But she knew that if she had to, she would.

Being a shinobi just meant too much for her now...

XXXXX

Sakura angrily stomped through the village, no particular direction in mind, inwardly fuming at the earlier argument with her mother. She loved her, she really did, but this particular subject was not something her mother would have any say in and not simply because of sentimental reasons or lack of intimate knowledge of how the shinobi world worked. In the end, a hidden village was an elaborate private army of sorts, one that served under the countries daimyo. His orders and the defense of the country with its interests came first. In return, the village was relatively self-governed and was allowed to accept mercenary work, as long as it did not go against the countries' interests in any way.

When one became an active shinobi, like Sakura and her classmates had, they for all intents and purposes became legal adults, with all the responsibilities and consequences that the status entitled. But they were also sworn to the village first, the Hokage second, and the council third. Barring a career crippling injury, one could only quit the shinobi force if both the council and the Hokage allowed it. It couldn't be allowed for a person excessively trained in shady skills who possibly knew village secrets to be left to roam free. Retirement was not particularly encouraged, as was evident with the current Hokage, and it rarely happened.

Most simply didn't live long enough to become old, often being bested as their skills deteriorated with age.

All of this meant that it was unlikely that her mother could do anything to get her discharged from the force, and that was without herself being so completely against it. The pink-haired girl knew that her family had quite a bit of power and money they could try and throw around, and while the Hokage might be understanding and allow it, there was no shot in hell that the council would let her go.

Lost in her thoughts, Sakura made her way through the village; turning her focus inwards and allowing her feet take her wherever they would. Finally, after almost running into a person for the fifth time, she looked up and actually focused on her surroundings.

She found herself at the entrance to one of the bigger merchandise sectors in the village. It was stationed close to the west entrance of the city and mostly catered to civilians and their needs. Many traders that came from the land of Wind and other smaller countries that dotted the border could be seen trying to sell spices, tea and other types of merchandise. It seemed to be a busy and profitable day, with many people going around spending money.

Sakura wondered what she was going to do for the rest of the day. She still had until tomorrow before she would be back on the active duty roster and the medic nin in the hospital had given her a strongly worded suggestion not to strain herself too much until then. The slight tightness that she felt from the scar on her chest only served to further turn her off of training for the day.

She could shop, she supposed, with there being near so many merchants nearby. That option didn't appeal to Sakura though, seeing as she didn't immediately need anything and wasn't really in the mood for spending hours just looking around for a new article of clothing. Although, maybe she _could_ use a new shinobi uniform, there was that large piece of her old one missing and she wasn't sure she could wear it without remembering, even if she had it fixed.

In the end the decision of what to do was taken from her hands, as a familiar voice rang out from behind her.

"Hey Forehead!"

With a sigh, Sakura turned around to face the voice and saw Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji walking towards her. Ino was walking with her usual perky and confident stride, making her way towards the pink-haired girl. In contrast both Shikamaru and Chouji walked much slower, especially the Nara. Of course that wasn't much of a surprise - the boy had always been ridiculously lazy. Sakura sometimes wondered how he had even made the effort of passing the genin test. Chouji was munching on a bag of chips whilst talking to Shikamaru quietly. All in all, it seemed that Ino was dragging her teammates along. It made perfect sense to Sakura, her one time friend had always been a "take control" kind of girl.

"Hello Ino-p…Ino," Sakura answered as the girl walked up to her, almost slipping and calling Ino by the derogatory nickname she had used for what seemed like forever. She didn't really want to argue with her rival right now and a little common courtesy should help with that.

For her part Ino looked at her strangely. Both Shikamaru and Chouji gave her nods of acknowledgment, which she returned. She had never been particularly close with either of them.

"I haven't seen you around the village since team placement, Forehead! Did you get sent back to the Academy?" said the blond in a teasing voice, lacking any real malice.

Sakura sighed again. So much for her grand plan of a peaceful conversation.

"No, Ino, I haven't. We've been busy training."

"Really? What about missions?" the blond answered with a skeptical look.

"We've only done the one for now."

"Hah, either you guys are the worst team ever, which is impossible because Sasuke-kun is on the team, or your sensei is even lazier than ours. Hell, he's probably lazier than Shikamaru!" Ino said. Shikamaru simply grunted in annoyance.

"No, Ino, we had orders to train intensely and get a C-rank mission directly afterwards. Actually we got back from it some time ago. Although I'm not sure it's still considered C-rank." Sakura said, pointedly ignoring the jibe towards her team, although it was a close thing.

"Well, we just got back from our first C-rank mission too! Kakashi-sensei, he's a lazy pervert but he's alright, said that we were probably ready for it so we had to escort a merchant to the border. We even fought with some bandits, but we kicked their ass!" Ino said cheerfully, missing Sakura's slight flinch at the word bandit. Shikamaru noticed it, but decided not to comment. It would be too troublesome, especially if Ino decided to pry.

"I'm glad you did well on your mission Ino" said Sakura calmly.

"Well, it's only natural. But I'm sure you didn't need to do anything at all at your mission. Sasuke-kun probably did anything by himself."

Sakura's tentative grasp on her temper broke like a dam, her face twisting into an ugly picture of rage. She didn't do anything? Didn't do anything? She could still feel the blood on her hands, no matter how much she cleaned them. She could feel her scar with every breath she took and that, that… little girl had the nerve to say that she didn't do anything?

Just as she was about to explode at her one time friend something passed through the street, through her, washing all of her anger away, leaving her confused. It took a moment to identify it as chakra. Everyone on the street that had any chakra awareness at all was turning to stare in confusion after the shockwave. It took her a moment more to identify who it belonged to and understand why it left her feeling so at ease.

"Naruto…" she whispered, quietly for anyone to hear. Shikamaru's eyes widened, having red her lips, furiously thinking how strong exactly his ex-classmate had to be to have created the giant dome of chakra that had passed through them.

"What?" asked Ino, not quite hearing what Sakura had said, but seeing her lips move.

Sakura's gaze snapped back towards the blond and Ino had to resist the urge to step back. There was a furious fire in those eyes, one that was missing before, one that was in complete contrast with the otherwise calm face of the pink-haired girl.

"Ino, I'd like a light spar if you don't mind. I suddenly have the urge to hit you and I prefer it being sanctioned," Sakura said serenely.

Ino's eyebrows shot upward. She had definitely not expected such a response, but she wasn't opposed to it. Sakura had never been stronger than her, so she felt there was no way that she would lose.

"Sure Forehead, but don't go crying when I beat you."

Sakura simply continued to look at her, It was disconcerting. She nodded in the direction of the closest training ground and started walking, fully expecting Ino to follow her.

Just as the blond stepped forward, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't do it Ino. You'll lose."

Shaking off the hand with a bit more force than necessary, the blond followed after Sakura. Shikamaru just shook his head and sighed, "Troublesome…" he mumbled. Chouji presented his bag of chips toward his best friend and after a moment of deliberation Shikamaru took one.

XXXXX

Sakura and Ino were standing across from one another in a small clearing. There was a soft cold breeze that made the leaves of the trees rumble slightly. The sun was high in the air and Sakura had made sure that it was behind her back so as to not get accidently blinded during the spar. Ino was glaring across at Sakura and psyching herself up for the spar, while Sakura was stretching, still with a infuriatingly calm look upon her face.

After a moment she stood up straight, and taking a page from Naruto's book, allowed a small knowing smile to appear on her face. That seemed to further infuriate the blond. That was good. Anger made you sloppy.

"First blood or fatal blow?" asked Ino impatiently, obviously itching to start the fight and get it over with.

"Fatal blow," replied Sakura. Lucky shots happened and she didn't want to lose due to one.

The blond nodded and fell into the standard Academy fighting stance.

Sakura didn't use an obvious stance, but her arm hung next to her kunai pouch, and she tensed, ready to react to whatever her counterpart tried.

Ino quickly ran forward, trying to shorten the distance between themselves, while at the same time throwing 3 shuriken at the pink-haired girl.

Sakura sidestepped the shuriken, returning fire with a volley her own, more accurately thrown shuriken, which in turn caused Ino to turn sharply to the right from her intended course, lest she be pierced by the small metal stars. They still almost grazed her, causing Sakura to inwardly flinch. She had once been a breath weaker than the Yamanaka. The pink-haired girl wondered how the hell she had been allowed to graduate at all, not to mention at the top of the class.

Sakura was already in movement, having predicted where Ino would go. A kunai was held in her hands and the blond quickly took note as she pulled out one of her own. The blades met with a dull clang and the two stopped for a moment, each pushing against the other. Sakura was mostly holding back, wanting to see how physically strong the other girl was.

She was disappointed.

Ino was far weaker than her, even with her stay in the hospital, which had left her rusty and far from her ideal condition. Ino's aim wasn't the best, she was slow. She had her family jutsu, but only the basics, which were practically useless in a one on one confrontation.

Ino had absolutely no chance of winning. Sakura knew it. But based on the somewhat mocking expression on the blond's face, Sakura guessed Ino had no clue.

Sakura's temper spiked again and she decided that this had been a bad idea. There was no point, really in fighting, since she had known that she would win. Asuma-sensei would be disappointed in her. Naruto and Sasuke would probably be too. She hoped that they might have been pleased that she had done it partially on their behalf, but they would still probably be disappointed.

And, in the end, she didn't want to completely humiliate the girl. They had been friends once after all, and they could probably still be friends again. What she did want was to show her a very small glimpse of the real world, beyond the safe walls of the city and the very protective education system she had grown up with. It was better for her in the long run. She'd probably even thank her, someday.

The two were still locked in a standstill, Sakura carefully controlling her strength to completely counter the force that the other girl put behind her blade. Suddenly, Sakura applied more strength, causing Ino to lose her balance. Quickly, she ducked down to avoid a panicked high slash from Ino's kunai before sweeping the feet out from under the already unsteady blond. From her crouched position, she shot forward and planted her knee in the other girl's belly while she pressed her kunai to press against her neck softly. And just like that the spar was over.

Ino's face quickly flashed through confusion and amazement, as she was beaten in the span of maybe a second.

"H-How…?" she spluttered, the only world that she could form at the moment.

"Things change Ino, the world is a harsh place. You would do well to learn that, preferablly sooner than later. I don't want to go to your funereal." Sakura said as she stood, her face completely serious as she tugged at her blouse subconsciously, accidently revealing part of her scar. Ino saw it and quietly gasp and the fresh mark.

Sakura turned to leave and took a couple of steps. Then she stopped and turned to Ino with a bright smile.

"Oh, and by the way Ino, Sasuke really hates it when someone uses honorifics to address him. Naruto told me that one. He does it sometimes, just to annoy him."

With that the pink-haired girl turned and left Ino with her thoughts.

Sometime later, Shikamaru and Chouji came across Ino, who was still lying on her back, trying to figure out what had happened to her childhood friend in such little time.

XXXXX

Ten minutes after her spar found Sakura by herself in the village again. One thought, dominating her current thoughts as she pondered on it.

'I just beat the girl that has been my rival for as long as I can remember.

"Now what…?"

**Author's notes:**

**New chapter up. **

**If someone is interested talking plot, preferably someone who can make me look dumb, I'd appreciate it. I have a somewhat clear idea where this is going, but I'd prefer to not leave any obvious plot holes open because I didn't pay attention.**

**As per usual, many thanks to IncludeYourBanana.**

**-IncludeYourBanana- He is most welcome :D**

**Cheers,**

**Simon**


	13. From Down Till Dusk Part 3

Uchiha Sasuke woke up to the familiar sound of birds chipping. Through long years of experience he knew that the sun had just started rising, signifying the beginning of a new day. Even as a child he was not one to leisurely sleep in – he had too much to strive for and every minute spent sleeping was a minute not spent training. As the second son of a distinguished shinobi family, he had many expectations placed on him, as was traditional. The expectations only became greater because he was the brother of none other than Uchiha Itachi, genius, elite ANBU captain and pride of the clan.

As always the thoughts of his brother came with a strange mix of emotions – burning anger, sadness, confusion. He still did not understand why Itachi had turned his back on everything and everyone. Why he had done what he had done. 'To test my limitations' he had said, but was that reason enough to murder, in cold blood, everyone he had known since being a small boy? To become a traitor to the village, hunted and feared through the land?

Some days, Sasuke could almost understand his brother, to his horror. Some days he felt like an animal in a zoo, a pet to the village. The last of the Uchiha, one of the most powerful clans in Konoha. Carrier of the Sharingan, talented prodigy of the shinobi arts, Uchiha Sasuke. He was praised for things he considered trivial and he was expected to be the best at everything. In short he felt like a clever child that parents couldn't help but parade around, while at the same time looking down on him. Because in the end he was still a child, a genin, miles away from the strength of his brother.

In time the burning, all-consuming anger that had been the only thing keeping him going after the night of the massacre had faded away, slightly, to be replaced by something similar to curiosity. He wanted to understand his brother, his motives. Did he have a true reason? Or had he simply gone insane with the power and expectations placed upon his back?

Sasuke had to know, so that he could be spared a similar fate.

He felt it, sometimes, on the ridge of his understanding, just beyond his consciousness. Resentment for the village, for his clan, for his brother, for everything the shinobi world did wrong. It was faint, it did not control him and probably never would, but it was there. And it scared him.

Madness comes with battle and a shinobi's life is battle.

Sasuke sat up in his bed, blinking and stretching to get rid of any lingering drowsiness and stiffness. His room, the same room he had lived all of his life, was as bare as always. The simple bed he slept on, the simple table and chair he worked and ate at. A small corner kitchen that was installed sometime after he had started living alone and realized that he had to feed himself or face a lifetime of takeout food.

The only non-practical part of the room was a shrine with a picture of his mother and father. It had once been a picture of them and Itachi, but _he_ was carefully burned from it. He kept an extra copy of the picture, tucked safely in one of the many warehouses of the Uchiha district, protected from decay by seals beyond his basic understanding. It would replace the current picture in the shrine, once he and Naruto… and Sakura he supposed, if she so wished, had dealt with his brother. Someday.

Even if Uchiha Itachi was a monster, he was family. And there had been love between the two brothers, once.

Sasuke got up and quickly dressed in his everyday attire of standard black shinobi pants, sandals and a high neck blue shirt with wide sleeves. Asuma had advised on the change of clothing – the long sleeves could help him hide the hand seals he was using, as well as any tools he might need at a moment's notice. They were quite convenient really, if somewhat hard to get accustomed to. He noticed that there wasn't any more lingering pain in his forearm.

Today was the last day of his forced retirement from active duty. He was still somewhat sore over the time he had missed due to the overzealous hospital staff. His arm had been badly broken and while it knitted quickly, there was a persistent lingering pain that was too concerning for the hospital staff to pass, it seemed. Personally, Sasuke though it was too much. A little pain wouldn't stop him.

That was why he had trained in secret, while he should have been resting.

If he was lucky, no one would know about it and he wouldn't have to deal with shouting, scary med nins.

Aside from his return to active duty the next morning, Sasuke had another reason to be shouting from the rooftops. Despite how disastrously wrong the mission had gone (although it could have been much, much worse – none of his teammates were dead or had any crippling physical injuries) there was at least one boon as long as he was concerned – he had unlocked the Sharingan.

The Sharingan, his family's bloodline, his legacy, one of the reasons many hailed him as a prodigy. The eyes were one of the most useful tools a shinobi of any kind could wish for. They could predict an opponent's movement to an extent, part of the reason why the standard Uchiha taijutsu consisted of mostly set ups and counters. They could see chakra, in less detail than their rival clan the Hyuuga, but still to a respectable degree. They could unravel and cast genjutsu with a simple glance, should they so desire and train for. But most importantly, for him, was the ability to instantly copy a jutsu when seen. Not the simple hand seals, but how the chakra was formed and used. In this, the eyes gave him a perfect memory. No doubt they would serve him well in widening his range of jutsu beyond what he was capable right now. Of course there were drawbacks – knowing how to use a jutsu and actually using it in a battle situation were two very different things. The distinction had led many a young Uchiha, overconfident in the power of their eyes to an early death in a battlefield. Yes the eyes were a powerful tool, but in the end the tool was as useful as the one wielding it could make it. If he lacked the proficiency with the library of jutsu he would eventually have, his efficiency would significantly drop. If he did not condition his body properly many of the techniques that could save his life eventually would be out of reach.

In short, the Sharingan was a boon, but one that required a solid understanding of the basics of the shinobi arts to be utilized.

What concerned him about his newly awakened Sharingan was the drastic difference of how people viewed him because of it. First of all there were the civilians, who bended backwards to be in his good graces, not that it helped them any. He had no respect for such power mongers that had only their words and money at hand. In the shinobi world power, true power, was won through blood, tears and death. Anything beyond that was inconsequential. But the civilians, blinded by his clan's reputation as the strongest, thought that possessing the red eye automatically made him the strongest. This of course was a stupid and childish way of thinking. His clan had been powerful, yes, but there was a reason why they had bowed to the Hokage through the years.

After all not even the Uchiha with their fabled eyes could hold a candle to the Professor, the God of Shinobi.

But in the end the civilians were mostly an annoyance and nothing more. Only patience and polite words were needed when dealing with them.

No, the problem came from the shinobi of the village.

Some of them, of course, had very similar thoughts to the civilian portion of the village. They were more often than not first generation in the art, with no history or understanding of the truths of the world. Underachieving, with no real aspirations, people who automatically assumed that a bloodline made someone their better, when in reality it was their own weak will that made it so.

Stupid, not deserving of attention.

The other part of the shinobi population was much more interesting and much more ominous. They watched him, carefully, every step, every move, every achievement. Some of them seeing his Sharingan as a mockery of their hard work – jutsu that they had spent time and effort to even learn, being stolen at a glance. He understood them, to a point, but there was never any point of being jealous of other shinobi's specific talents. He could never reach Naruto's raw chakra reserves and his pure dedication and talent with a blade. He could never have Sakura's natural chakra control and her obvious medical ninjutsu talent. And he was okay with that. Everyone had their strengths, just as everyone had their weaknesses. It was why the team system had been implemented in the first place.

But the others that watched his every move were people who were weary of him. They were afraid that he could simply snap, just as Itachi had, and betray the village. In many eyes the Uchiha name was forever marred, lased with the promise of betrayal and mental instability. Sasuke understood that his behavior before Naruto did not help his disposition in the eyes of many of the village's shinobi.

But that was fine. He had time, hopefully, to wash away the doubt from his name. He hoped his actions spoke would enough.

It was a beautiful day, as usual, in Konoha. The sun's rays were pleasantly hot on Sasuke's face and there was a soft breeze that made a walk along the village very appealing.

Sasuke stretched, enjoying his relaxed state for once, looking around his clan's compound. It was so… empty. There was no sign of the horrors that this place had seen – a fairly large sum of money had made sure of that. But there was no sound or movement, nothing close to the busy and lively place this part of the village once was.

Sasuke had thought many, many times of simply moving to a new location, hoping that it would spare him the crushing loneliness, the sheer guilt that he had survived while none other had. Some place where he could escape the ghosts of the past and live normally with no remorse.

But he was twisted. He could not do that.

It would be disrespectful.

But he could go for a walk and the day was too good to spoil. And tomorrow he would be back to his normal life of training and preparing for the day he would need all his skills.

However long that wait was.

XXXXX

Sasuke made his way through the village streets, careful not to attract too much attention to himself. While going completely incognito was unlikely, there was a good chance that he wasn't going to be stopped and gawked at too much if he kept his head down and his pace fast.

It was sad to note that the Uchiha didn't really have an idea HOW to spend a free day. Training, which composed most of his time, was forbidden to him right now. He couldn't hang out with Naruto, or even Sakura for that matter, however horrifying that thought would have once been. Naruto wasn't what you would call the heart of a party, but as a fellow introvert, Sasuke appreciated the quiet comradeship that the boy had. Sakura… Sakura was weird. One moment she was considerate and fun to be around and the next she got a crazy look in her eye and started looking at him as if he were a piece of meat. It made him wonder if the girl had the most problems out of everyone in the village…

Well, it was a foreign point since he had absolutely no idea where either of them were and probably wouldn't be able to find them if he tried. The village was quite big after all.

Besides he could rarely find Naruto when he was really trying. Stupid lucky blond.

So instead of dying of boredom, Sasuke decided to do something productive and go shopping. He needed some of his kunai sharpened and he preferred to have a blacksmith working on them, unlike his blue eyed teammate. His shinobi tools all came from the various storages that the Uchiha had. He had picked the ones with the highest quality and he intended to use them for as long as possible.

He had considered, at one point, giving some supplies to his teammates – he had way too much for himself and they weren't doing anyone any good just sitting in a warehouse, but decided to hold off for a while. Naruto didn't use that many kunai and shuriken anyway, and when he did they were mostly for distraction. He'd wait for his birthday to give him a set.

He had decided for a similar course of action with Sakura, but for vastly different reasons. Sakura did in fact often use the standard shinobi tools, and quite proficiently if he had to be honest, but there was the slight problem of her… for a lack of better word crush on him. While she was getting significantly better about it and in time would probably get over it, a present could potentially rekindle the problem all over again. It was a possibility that he did not want to entertain.

Yes, it was better to simply wait for her birthday too, besides that eliminated any birthday shopping.

While walking, he let his attention wonder. He had no urgent business and he knew well enough that the weapons store could have his tools in good shape before tomorrow no matter when he brought them. It was quite early in the day and the sun was quite pleasant.

He stopped before various stores, looking at armor and different tags. He considered actually buying a set of bracers that seemed exceptional, but figured that if he really needed a set at some point, he could easily find a pair in his clan's storages.

Sasuke did buy some sealing scrolls. After a small consideration he figured that he would buy one for Naruto and Sakura too, as a gift for surviving the mission-gone-wrong. He would just have to be very clear on the reason for the present.

He was in no way scared of Sakura. But to be cautious was the life of a shinobi.

As he walked through the village, many people stopped and bowed to him. He returned these bows with the barest of nods, simply continuing his trek, not really giving his attention to anyone in particular. None of the people seemed put off by his attitude. In fact many of them seemed to feel honored to be even acknowledged. Had he really been so bad that even such a minor signs of attention caused such a reaction in people?

Damn, Naruto was right. He had been a complete ass.

Not that he would ever say so in the presence of the blond.

And then it happened. A wave of chakra passed him making him jump and shocking a good portion of the village as well as all the animals on the street. After taking a second to calm himself and thinking about the feeling of the chakra, the Uchiha just shook his head and sighed. He could not stop the small smile that crossed his face.

Of course Naruto was doing something outrageous again. What else was new?

He considered trying to track down the source of the chakra but gave it up as a bad job. He wasn't the best sensor, even with his Sharingan, and if he knew the blond at all he would be long gone from wherever he was right now. Besides he still needed to have his tools sharpened.

He continued his trek, not at all surprised by a loud explosion that rung from nearby, followed by shouts and more explosions.

It was just another day in a shinobi village.

An especially pleasant day.

He made his way to the weapons store he frequented. It had arguably the best wares in the city and the man who ran it was an ex-shinobi as well as a blacksmith. His daughter, who was a year older than Sasuke himself, had obviously followed in her father's footsteps, because she was currently a genin, and quite a talented one at that, if what her father said about her was even partially true. He had seen the girl around the store from time to time, and she seemed somewhat plain to him, but that was probably to her advantage in the field – there was no bigger blessing than being underestimated in a life and death situation.

Sasuke entered the store only to see what had become a familiar sight – a somewhat dusky and sketchy looking room, filled to the brim with various weapons. He had a fairly extensive understanding of weaponry himself, but he had to admit that he could not even name a good third of the tools here, let alone even begin thinking of how they were used most effectively. It raised his respect for the shop owner's daughter, seeing how he bragged that she knew how to use every single one of them. Sasuke considered actually introducing himself to her, if only to have someone to push Naruto to when he started talking about swords too much.

The blond had a very weird feeling around himself when he was like that. It was similar to being cut, over and over again.

It was one of the times that the Uchiha really feared his teammate.

The boy shook his head and made his way to the counter. The man behind it was quite large; no doubt a sign of his profession. Easily 6' 2, the man towered over the boy who had yet to hit his growth spurt. His frame was bulging with muscles and Sasuke had no doubt that the man's strength was something to behold. In contrast he wore a fairly simple looking black eastern G.I. under a leather apron. Despite his rather intimidating appearance, the man's face was open and cheerful, a large smile always present. It was an interesting contrast.

"Ah, the young Uchiha is back in my store. I am pleased to see you!" the man said sincerely, his smile never dropping from his face.

The Uchiha gave a small smile of his own in return and bowed slightly.

"Me as well. I hope all has been fine?"

"Yeah, yeah. I made a killing not 10 minutes ago, had a huge order. Something about a warehouse getting blown up…" the man said, trailing off.

"Yes, I think I heard that. It was quite… loud." Sasuke nodded sagely.

There was silence for a couple of seconds. With the pleasantries complete, the Uchiha reached to the sachet he was carrying and placed it on the counter. The large man simply opened it up, seeing what is inside and nodded.

"I assume you want the standard procedure Uchiha-san?"

"Yes, and I would appreciate it if it could be done before 9 tomorrow. If I had known that you would have such an order I would have tried to come earlier but…" Sasuke said, feeling somewhat guilty.

"Ha-ha, not to worry, not to worry. I'll just give them to Tenten, she is good enough to deal with work like this" the man said while tapping the boy on the shoulder.

"Thank you; I will come pick them up first thing tomorrow. And as for your daughter," Sasuke said, but seeing the somewhat waning smile of the man before him blurted out his next words extremely fast " I was wondering if I could introduce her to one of my teammates, who is extremely interested in blades, I'm sure he would make for good conversation."

"And wouldn't scare me to death each time he talks about that thing…" he muttered more to himself than to the man before him.

The smile came back to full force and another heavy tap came down on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Oh, is that so. Someone your age is actually dedicated to the blade, I'm impressed. They are few and far between, and even fewer make something of themselves in that path," the man said, but noted the look that the boy before him had. "But it seems your teammate is quite talented with it. It would be good for Tenten to have someone to talk about weapons, no doubt…"

The man was silent for a second before turning "You know what, bring that friend of yours sometime and we'll figure something out. I'm curious what blade he uses. Professional habit, ha-ha."

Sasuke simply nodded and made for the exit, followed by the heart laugh of possibly his favorite shop owner.

Making his way to the streets, Sasuke looked around thinking what to do. He didn't want to go home yet…

As his eyes lazily scanned the street for anything of potential interest, he caught the eye of someone that he really didn't want to. When the man started making his way to him, Sasuke couldn't do anything besides grunt in desperation and annoyance.

The man was visibly in his mid-thirties, wearing an elaborate formal blue kimono with a yellow flower design. He had relatively short brown hair that was slicked back. His whole posture screamed arrogance and money and his greasy smile was not something you would like to see every day.

In short, this man was a merchant, one that had had extremely close ties to his clan before the massacre. The problem was that he still wanted to use their name in his dealings, even though they had lost much. And seeing how Sasuke was the last loyal Uchiha, he made sure to shower him with compliments and presents at every opportunity.

Needless to say, Sasuke found it extremely annoying.

"Why if it isn't Sasuke-kun," the man said, ignoring that the boy had never given him permission to call him by his first name. No doubt the man wanted to imply familiarity, to everyone who was potentially listening "I am glad to see you in such good spirits. I trust your arm is better?"

Sasuke sighed, discreetly. He really hated dealing with this person.

"Yes Mishima-san. I am to return to full service tomorrow."

"Excellent, excellent! But of course I have to congratulate you on the success of your mission. Not many genin on their first field assignment could have done half as well against an enemy such as you faced," said the man with the same sickening smile.

It was no surprise that he knew of the mission and what had transpired. The Mishima family was an old one in Konoha, and while they had never been shinobi themselves, they made some of the finest armor and uniforms in the Fire nation. Both the quality of their wares and their shrewd business minds through the generations had done much for their financial well-being, culminating in the current head Mishima Kimitake. The man had nearly doubled the clan's fortune in the 8 years he had been clan head and managed to easily buy his way in the Konoha council, no doubt aiming to further enlarge his assets.

The clan was a powerful ally to have, and his ancestors had known it, but Sasuke himself simply could not bring himself to like the man.

Being treated as a girl to be courted, with expensive clothes and gear was not earning the man many points, much to his subtle surprise.

Nonetheless, the Mishima was relentless in having the Uchiha name. He wanted Sasuke to buy only from him, therefore spreading his clan's name further. Despite its state, many would still follow what the Uchiha say.

"Thank you, but I cannot take all the credit. My team was crucial in both my survival as well as the success of the mission," Sasuke said stiffly.

"You are far too modest, Sasuke-kun! And I heard you unlocked the Sharingan, at such a young age too. Remarkable. You are indeed a prodigy beyond compare."

Sasuke simply grunted, not finding a polite way to answer the man.

"Nonetheless, I would feel honored to have you for dinner tonight and hear the trilling tale of the mission. I am sure my children will enjoy your company also," the man said, his false smile widening ever so slightly. Mishima knew full well that Sasuke, as an unofficial clan head, could not deny him without proper reason.

Sasuke frowned very slightly, outwardly considering the proposition, while inwardly trying to come up with a believable reason to not attend. He was not sure that he could stand to be in the presence of this man for the entire night, not to mention his children, who were typical entitled civilian spoiled brats.

While he was thinking he spotted a woman standing a few meters to the side, not even pretending not to listen to the discussion. She was obviously a shinobi, judging by her strange clothing – a denser than normal mesh shirt, dark brown skirt with two belts, some sort of necklace and a tan overcoat. Her purple hair was done up in a short, spiky pony tail. Sasuke secretly wondered if it was a prerequisite for kunoichi to have weirdly colored hair. The woman was grinning in a somewhat mad manner and seemed to take enjoyment in watching the boy discreetly squirm.

Sasuke looked at her pleadingly. The woman just looked at him for a second or two and sighed. Using some of the basic hand signals taught in the academy she spelled out "you owe me" to the desperate boy.

The Uchiha nodded without hesitation.

The woman made her presence known and came closer to Mishima and Sasuke. She nodded stiffly to the council member, whose smile immediately dropped.

"Mishima-sama."

"Mitarashi."

"I'm sorry to take you're young friend away, but he still has to answer some answers for clarification purposes in I&T."

"I… see. Of course, I wouldn't want to cause problems for young Sasuke-kun," the man said, clearly disappointed that his ploy failed. "It seems we will leave the dinner for another time Sasuke-kun. I look forward to it…" the man said as he slowly walked away glaring at the woman… Mitarashi, with cold eyes.

"Thank you for helping me, Mitarashi-san." Sasuke said, turning towards the woman and bowing quickly.

"No problem brat. But as I said, you owe me, and I intend to collect," the woman said, her slightly crazy smile back in full force. "You'll buy me dango, lots and lots of dango. And booze too, yeah. And you'll tell me about that mission, I missed the briefings, because I was out of the village."

Sasuke sighed. Seemed that he would have to tell that story again. Annoying… but not as annoying as dinner with Mishima would have been.

"You do know I'm 13 right? I can't buy alcohol." Sasuke said in resignation as he followed the already walking woman.

"So? You're not buying the booze; you're only paying for it. Now spill, I heard it was good fun on that one."

Sasuke really didn't want to live in the mind of the person who found almost getting killed by people way out of your skill range even remotely fun.

**Author's Notes:**

**Hey guys. Next arc – another mission and after that the all new all exciting, and possibly logical chūnin exams. Now, do you a) want me to post whenever I finish a chapter as I have, or b) just work out the entire arc and post it in one big go? Either works for me, so it's up to you. Other than that, a big thanks to my beta IncludeYourBanana, as always.**

**Oh and you can probably expect a small something in the next few days. We'll see how it goes.**

**Cheers,**

**Simon**


	14. Playing With Fire

**Disclaimer:**

**I still don't own anything, more's the pity.**

XXXXX

"As of this moment you are reinstated to active duty. Dismissed."

There were three polite bows from the genin of Team 7. All of them turned to exit, but their jounin sensei lingered in the room, his features hard and his eyes boring into his father's with obvious resolution.

Naruto hesitated, for a moment, before a slight tug on the arm from Sakura got him moving out of the room.

The Hokage broke eye contact with his son to look on at the casual mannerism in which the team interplayed. It spoke of trust, something he had only hoped Naruto would be able to give, eventually. That it had happened so fast spoke much of the team he was put in, his teacher and of course the trials they had been put through.

A small smile, warming his grizzled features played on his lips.

With the sound of the door closing the happy moment broke. The elder man turned his sight to his slightly estranged son. It was remarkable that the elder Sarutobi mussed, how much his features resembled his own, even though he had adopted a different style for himself. There was much of his mother in him, of course, but he could clearly see himself as a young man in Asuma's face. The cigarette he was smoking also seemed to be a family feature although the jounin had started decidedly younger and in much greater quantities.

More tries, unsuccessful ones mind you, to be different. It was regrettable how the bond between two of the staunchest believers in the Will of fire had become. Judging by the unmoving stiff posture and piercing gaze of Asuma thought he had little interest in reminiscing in the follies of the past. In fact, the grizzled shinobi had a fairly good idea of what exactly his son wanted to converse about. But still, niceties had to be followed even with family, especially with family. No quarter could be shown in official situations. It came with being Hokage.

It was also the crux of the estrangement.

"And why aren't you on your way to rest for the night like your team?"

Asuma continued staring at his refusing to answer, tapping impatiently with his right foot. It was a habit he had had even since he was a child.

Well, direct it was then.

"Speak, then." the old man said with a heavy sigh, reaching for his unlit pipe.

Asuma took a deep breath.

"Why are you trying to break my team?" Asuma asked his voice hard and filled with barely restrained venom.

Had it come from anyone else it would be disrespect worthy of punishment. Coming from his last remaining child it was simply gut wrenching.

"Explain your reasoning and I will answer as best as I can."

Asumas's raised eyebrow clearly conveyed exactly how likely he found that, but he nodded and gathered himself nonetheless.

"In short, your pushing them too far, too fast,: Asuma said, his voice heated "I'll be the first to admit that those three are probably the most talented bunch of genin I have ever seen and they seem to thrive under pressure, but they are kids still, and moreover, I've read their psych reports. Sakura seems the most normal of the three, but..."

"You haven't red the full reports, mostly because I've kept them well out of reach. Sakura isn't as bad as the boys but she has her fair share of problems too," the Sandaime said, interrupting his son's speech.

A shocked look on Asuma's face, the elder Sarutobi found for the millionth time, did not suit the normally jovial man at all. With a sigh the old man made a hand seal, activating the privacy wards around his office, the faint tightness in his chest that he felt every time he used them returning in full force. The seal had been personally crafted by his successor and sadly, predecessor after all. They had not failed, unlike many other things and people in Konoha, including himself.

By the time the Hokage finished with his task, Asuma had managed to master his emotions, his expression becoming stony once more.

"I assume you would like to see the files, Asuma?"

His son gave a clipped nod in answer. Hiruzen went through a long string of hand signs, biting his thumb afterwards and putting the bloodied finger on a night inaccessible and insignificant part of his desk. With a small puff of smoke and a faint trace of chakra, a drawer popped out.

Wiping the spots of remaining blood from his finger, the elder Sarutobi reached inside and removed the rather thick files, complete with current pictures of the genin of team 7 clipped to the front and red 'Confidential' stamps placed rather forcefully on the paper.

The Hokage threw the three files on the desk in front of his son and urged him to read with a wave of his hand.

Without hesitation Asuma reached forward and began quickly going through the reports, becoming paler and paler with every turned sheet of paper.

The old man idly fiddled with his pipe as he waited for his scion to read through the files, the very picture of apathetic boredom.

It was an image he had perfected over the years, one quite in contrast with his actual self. Being powerful did not protect one from the need for masks. Quite the opposite, it demanded them.

After all it was always better to not look the part of the powerful shinobi. Then, when you had to show power, people tended to be surprised.

The files slammed on the desk as Asuma threw them, making some other documents fall to the ground. The Hokage made a mental note to have one of his assistants sort out the mess later.

The jounin sensei's face was a curious shade of red, the elder Sarutobi observed and he was literally shaking with what could only be described as barely restrained fury. With sharp forceful gestures the younger man took out his pack of cigarettes and shoved one unceremoniously in his mouth to even bothering with looking for a lighter, using a small burst of his chakra to produce a flame which lit the tobacco stick instead. Hiruzen was honestly impressed, the flame had been very well controlled, despite the emotional state of his son. His elemental manipulation had come far.

It wouldn't have been surprising for it to accidently incinerate half the room judging by the emotions flickering across Asuma's face at the moment.

A drag of the cigarette that made it half its original length and a veritable smokescreen later, Asuma was visibly more composed.

That did not prevent the shouting. Nor the sliver of thanks that rose in the Hokage's mind for the high quality of the seals in the room. People didn't need to know that his shinobi, even if it was his son, dared to take such a tone with him.

"Are you fucking insane?!" Asuma shouted, slamming both of his hands on the desk and leaning forward towards his unflinching father. "Exactly what combination of these three makes you think it's even a remotely good idea to make finely tuned weapons of?"

Another long drag of the cigarette followed, along with another cloud of smoke. The Hokage remained silent.

"It says in the… evaluation" the jounin spat in disgust "that Naruto is emotionally stunted, dangerously obsessed with his self-proclaimed "nindo" which he got from a story of all things, fanatically loyal to you, has no worth of life as such and to top it all off is bored line suicidal in his attempts to please you. Sasuke's mind is apparently unhinged, absolutely focused on his brother to the point of seeing everything and everyone even unconsciously as a tool for his removal and that's without even mentioning the mental trauma from the night of the massacre and the genjutsu his brother put him under, the survivals guilt and the shame of running away." A last drag finished the cigarette, clearly showing exactly how unnerved Asuma was. "I guess that compared to those two Sakura has the smallest problems, just almost crippling insecurity and self-doubt, a slight case of a split personality, excessive violence and obsessive tendencies."

Finishing his rant, Asuma slumped forwards, placing his elbows on the desk and his face in his hands, muttering silently.

"Those three don't need a teacher they need a therapist. I am not one, no matter how attached I got to the three brats," the jounin said with an air of regret and slight dejection.

"Hell, I knew it was bad, from the first time I saw them, but even I didn't see it all, obviously. As much as I like these kids, they shouldn't be shinobi, not with their problems."

A moment passed in silence. Asuma straightened looking at his father, who was simply observing him. For a moment the younger Sarutobi thought no answer would follow.

But the silence was broken.

"I completely agree," the Hokage said solemnly.

"Then why do this? Don't you see how dangerous, how irresponsible it is?"

"Then what will you have me do?" the elder Sarutobi asked, a little anger bleeding in his voice. "Would you have me retire them to a desk job maybe? Bar them from service entirely? Send them to T&I and throw away the key?" The Hokage half yelled, making his son flinch with the last proposal. He knew perfectly well how the permanent 'guests' of the torture and intelligence corps were treated.

There was silence in the room as both men visibly took control of their tempers.

"There simply isn't anything I can do. It is in my power, of course, to assign the children where I please, no matter what the council thinks" the Hokage said in a silky voice that hid a hint of steel. "But have you considered how the children themselves would react? Naruto would accept anything I tell him to do I know that but we both know he is a detergent. We can't allow him to be untrained and defenseless because as a jinchuuriki he is much too important"

"And I could never forgive myself if I didn't help him grow into a man his parents would be proud of," the Hokage said more to himself than to his son.

"Sasuke would also never accept anything aside from combat duty. If it appears that we are willingly limiting him, he will search his fortune elsewhere and Konoha can't allow that – the Uchiha are too important even in their sad state."

"While Sakura would probably do whatever she is told, I need her to act as a softening factor for the other two. They need someone who is at least semi-normal to guide them through situations they would have no knowledge of."

The Hokage sighed and started meticulously cleaning his pipe. He knew he needed to cut back on the tobacco, his physician had told him as much numerous times, but it was the only nerve soothing vice he allowed himself.

"And moreover it is as you say. The three are easily the most talented of their generation, despite them coming from a particularly talented batch of genin. Konoha needs to see that talent fulfilled. The Will of Fire must not be extinguished and they will be the ones carrying it most strongly to the next generation."

"So you are prepared to sacrifice these children, or at least their sanity, for Konoha?" Asuma asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"If needed, yes. You know that," answered the elder Sarutobi, a look of pain, undetectable to those who did not know him well, passing over his features.

"Oh, yes. Perfectly," answered Asuma, bitterness evident in his voice.

In the end though," continued the Hokage, "it is my hope that it will not come to that. Yes I want them to break, because after that they can be reforged, into something new, better. It is a task I am certain you are well equipped for. It is also probably the most important one you will face in your lifetime. Rising the next generation often is."

"Yes, we all know you have a great record in that," Asuma said, the jab clearly intended to be hurtful.

Surprisingly the Hokage simply nodded, acknowledging the point, but adamant in his reasoning nonetheless.

Asuma stared at his father for a moment longer, seemingly searching for something. He appeared not to find whatever he was looking for and dropped his head.

"Well, Hokage-sama, I will obey of course," Asuma spoke his voice even and unwavering, "I will push them until they break. Just don't be surprised if they don't turn out exactly how you want. I don't think you know them, not really. Not even Naruto," the jounin sighed and whispered his next words. "You were never the greatest judge of character."

"Anyway, I'll roll the dice and let them fall where they will. But know this – if things turn out for the worse, I will stand back, maybe even applaud the kids. I will stand behind them. And if Konoha burns, well that may be for the better, don't you think?"

"This is treasonous talk Asuma," the Hokage stated sternly.

"Oh I know that perfectly father. Good day." With a mock salute Asuma turned on his heel and exited the room, already reaching for his pack of cigarettes.

The old man watched as the door closed behind his heir. A small smile appeared on his face as he reached for a report that required his attention. A client from Wave had come, with a mission that could open up much prospective business for his beloved village.

"As expected of you, Asuma" the Hokage said to himself, his words filled with pride.

XXXXX

"So what do you think Hokage-sama and sensei are talking about?" Asked Sakura, as the three genin walked out of the Hokage tower, heading for their usual haunting place – the restaurant they had visited right after their genin test.

"Probably about our next mission," Sasuke answered, walking next to his friends and teammates nodding to the occasional greeting.

Naruto simply nodded in agreement, although both of his companions weren't paying him much attention. His face held a slight smile, which was his expression of choice when going through the village and dealing with people that he did not immediately know. He even practiced it in the mirror, wanting to look as unassuming as possible.

The image was somewhat ruined by his shinobi attire and the way he was fingering the hilt of his ninjato.

"Well, anyway, I'm sure we'll have a bit of time to train before we go, don't you think?" Sakura continued, chattering as she usually did. She was a generally cheerful girl and didn't like silence all that much, while her two teammates weren't the most talkative in the world. This left her with the arduous task of keeping the conversation going. "What did you two get up to yesterday? And did you feel that chakra surge that passed through the village? I heard that ANBU had caught someone who was trying to break in in one of their warehouses because of it, "she said, looking pointedly at her blond teammate.

"Hn?" Sasuke turned towards Sakura in interest. He had felt the wave of course, but it was news to him that it had had any real significance aside from giving him ammunition for ribbing Naruto at some point in the future.

"Yeah, I came early in the tower and some of the clerks were talking about it. Said that the thief probably wouldn't have been caught without it. Said it was a really big deal." Sakura rubbed her chin in mock thought and continued "Maybe I should report them to the Hokage. It doesn't seem like something you should gossip around genin."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, while Naruto studiously avoided looking at his teammates, instead choosing to stare straight ahead, a twitch showing that he was on the verge of breaking out in a real smile. Even in failure he was useful, it seemed. Although it was still pretty embarrassing that he had failed at all.

"So what were you doing to make that kind of chakra pulse? And please don't tell me you somehow learned about the thief and thought it was a good idea to just throw chakra at the problem until it went away, because if you did, you owe us all. I was bored stiff all day," Sasuke said with a smirk.

It was actually a lot embarrassing, Naruto found.

"Oh, speak for yourself. I had a great time! I got to beat up Ino. It felt even better than I thought it would," Sakura said, a smirk matching the one of her raven haired teammate on her face.

"Yamanaka-san?" Naruto asked, interested. "Why would you fight her?"

Naruto purposely did not ask if she had won, knowing without a doubt that even when rusty, as she no doubt had been, Sakura would win any fight with his fellow blond. After all, they were the elite of the genin of the village and Sakura, while not a direct combat type, was more than a match for the shrill girl he remembered from the Academy.

"Yeah, she kind of said that we just strolled along and did nothing on our last mission, even though I told her it was a C-rank and implied that it was actually much harder. She seemed like she was looking for something to fight about, to be honest. It was really insensitive on her, so I showed her the error of her ways," Sakura said, buffing her nails on her shirt.

"Tch, I knew she was dumb, but that's a bit too much," Sasuke said, shaking his head. "I'm surprised she didn't hear about what happened from her father. I'm pretty sure he's pretty high up in the information department."

"It does not matter. She was looking for a fight. She found it," Naruto said, cutting off further discussion.

"Yep, it was great, you should've seen it, turns out I'm actually pretty awesome!" Sakura giggled, pride obvious in her voice. "Anyway, what were you doing Naruto? I know you have a lot of chakra but that was a bit much for training, wasn't it?"

Naruto turned his eyes downward and blushed slightly. That surprised both of his teammates, who were accustomed to the blond's usual lack of emotional responses and became that more interested about the reason for the chakra wave.

"I was trying to suppress my chakra," Naruto mumbled.

Sasuke stared at his friend, while Sakura tilted her head to the side, a confused expression on her face.

"Care to say that again? I don't think I heard you right," Sasuke said, the smirk coming back to his face in full force.

Naruto sighed.

"I was trying to suppress my chakra," the blond said more clearly.

"Let me get this straight. You, our very own perfectionist, tried to suppress your chakra, but instead sent out a wave that actually disrupted a thief mid heist and covered probably half the village, if not all of it?" The last loyal Uchiha asked.

Naruto simply nodded, his face coloring some more.

Sasuke burst out laughing, closely followed by Sakura.

The expression on Naruto's face was most definitely not a pout, because shinobi did not pout.

"Only you Naruto," Sakura said in between fits of laughter. "Only you."

After a while Sasuke stopped laughing, eyeing his teammate with a calculative look.

"You'll show us, right? Stealth is important after all."

XXXXX

Sometime later, the team was joined at the restaurant by Asuma, who refused to talk about why he had stayed behind in his father's office. Instead he quickly ordered and started lecturing them much like he had the first time the four had come here.

"OK boys and girl, I've read through your debriefing enough times to already, so I'm not going to bore you with more questions. Instead I'll tell you what we'll be doing from here on out, as per the wishes of the Hokage," the jounin said, sipping from his pippin hot tea.

"We have a week of general training to polish out any rust you may or may not have gathered during your time of inactivity. We won't be working on anything new, just general taijutsu, yes Naruto and kenjutsu, drills physical training and such."

"After that one week we will be taking another mission. I'm not exactly sure what it'll be, but assume it's going to be hard, so no slacking off," Asuma said half seriously, knowing perfectly well that no one on his team had any idea how to slack off, or had lost it the moment they had become active genin.

"When we return, I have been ordered to prepare you for the chunin exams," Asuma said, raising a hand, stalling the excitement that was immediately visible on all three faces, especially Naruto's for some reason. "As you may know the exam is held in Konoha this year. You are being entered as a message. You are expected to outperform everyone."

"Let me repeat myself. You are to shine. You are to blow every other team, every other genin out of the water and show why exactly Konoha is the strongest village. There will be teams from non-allied countries coming to the exam. Install the fear of god in them."

"If you don't, well, you'll owe me and I will collect. We clear?"

All three genin nodded.

"Great! But well, that's a while off yet," Asuma said jovially.

"Now in keeping with tradition, let's talk about what you'll be learning soon."

"Naruto, you're good with the blade and we're going to keep your skill sharp. But if you're going to be a weapon's specialist, at least for now, you will pick up some more weapons and sharpen your general tool usage. I know you don't like ninjutsu very much, but you will learn some supplementary ones and implement the ones you already know into your fighting style."

"Sasuke, since you unlocked your Sharingan, we'll be working heavily on chakra control. You'll use the chunin exams to pick up as much jutsu as possible. With any luck we could even get something new for the village. Extra cash is never a bad thing."

"Sakura, you'll be working on rudimentary fuinjutsu, as well as trap making and strategy. I've given up any hope for those two, but I hope that at least you have a head for the most elegant of the arts of war."

All three genin expressed their understanding and continued eating after a dismissive nod from their sensei. The jounin himself smiled to the three finished his tea and left to look for Kurenai. He really needed a bit of relaxation and she was just the person who could help him with that.

XXXXX

Hoshi was one of the more popular destinations in River Country. That fact wasn't too surprising considering its reputation - it was a haven for gamblers, lovers of entertainment, both legal not so much, as well as what most would call immoral, disgusting and a variety of similar epithets. In short it had everything you would want to find, and most of the things you wouldn't want to find.

The prosperity of the city naturally led to some characteristics that were now considered natural for the inhabitants and the frequent visitors.

The first, most visual quirk was that the city was very bright and very lively. The buildings were tall, shooting upward in the sky, and well lit at all times. There wasn't a point in time when large groups of people couldn't be found walking through the streets.

There were no security checks to speak of, despite the presence of a well-trained police force. The city was open to all who wanted to have a good time. This laxness of security of course, invited all kinds of troublemakers and people of dubious morality. And while they kept their noses clean, they were welcome to spend as much time and money as they wished to part with.

The magistrate of the city was a well- liked middle aged man of scholarly reputation. It was a public secret that he took generous bribes from the "entertainers" in the city for allowing them to work on what was essentially his land. This kept his pockets well-padded and he wasn't afraid to give bribes of his own through the land. It was good business after all. He was in essence one of the most influential and wealthy men in the Land of Rivers.

Many gangs roamed the street, most dealing with gambling, prostitution and drug trade. And if they weren't obstructive to the business of the city and its guest, they were safe, even welcome to manage their chosen fields. For a fee of course.

Those who became obstructive did not have pretty ends.

XXXXX

Four completely unremarkable people were thus greeted by the sight of Hoshi late at night. The group consisted of one man and three children, two boys of similar height and one girl. They wore simple, sturdy clothing in neutral browns, all of which looked a little worn from traveling, but well-kept and cleaned. The man's face visibly hadn't seen a razor in some time. His hair was relatively short, brownish in color and somewhat grimy from sweat and dirt. His eyes were brown and shone with good humor.

The boys were entirely different from one another.

One had an expression of pure boredom on his face, with only the slightest twitch of his eye and mouth betraying that he was trying and failing to mask his anxiety and the intimidation he felt from the city in front of him.

The other boy on the other hand was smiling widely his face a picture of astonished delight as he looked around, clearly awed by the sight of people and lights.

The bored-looking boy had longish black hair that fell in a mop around his face. His eyes were also black. His face could easily be considered handsome, if it weren't for the thin layer of dirt one naturally gathered while traveling long distances on foot.

The other boy was equally dirty and his face was more boyishly charming than handsome, a feature that was further accentuated by his bright blue eyes. His hair was extremely messy, not long, but definitely not short, dark brown in color.

The only girl in the group was also wide eyed at the sight of the city in front of her, softly clutching the adult's shirt as she trailed behind him. She was definitely cute with her shoulder length hair which was the same shade of brown as the only adult in the group. Her eyes were a vibrant green in color, and she looked on in wonder at everything around her, chatting endlessly and somewhat nervously to the two boys, randomly pointing at buildings and people. She didn't seem to notice that the boys were paying her little to no attention. Or if she did, she didn't mind.

Only a person with deep understanding of the human body language would have noticed the calculated way in which the seemingly random movements were executed of the three children were executed, so as to have as much awareness of their surrounding as possible, while at the same time not giving away that they had any.

The only adult in the group was, unlike the children, looking straight ahead, a wide, cheerful smile on his face, the only indication that he had noticed the children at all being that he constantly kept an on them, presumably to prevent them from running off to parts unknown.

The four made their way to one of the more reputable hotels, which was stationed in the relative center of the town, without much trouble, aside from the occasional promoter of various establishments. All of the offers were politely declined.

The man rented two rooms from the slightly pudgy, extremely sweaty and very friendly owner, somehow managing to flash quite a sum of money in the process. The wad of money cemented him as a good customer in the mind of the owner.

The four left their modest luggage in their rooms, which were next to each other on the second floor, both with a good view towards the street outside. And then, surprisingly, all of the children started preparing for sleep, while the man went out.

None of them said a word.

XXXXX

Asuma, in one of his preferred civilian outfits, went downstairs from the room he had just rented, with very deliberate steps, perfectly adjusting his stride to what a civilian living an active lifestyle would have had. It was important to look the part when in disguise even when you thought that there wasn't anyone with significant power of observation around. It simply wouldn't do for a completely normal civilian carpenter to have the fluid and completely controlled movements of a seasoned shinobi.

Not for the first time Asuma wondered what exactly his father was thinking with this mission. Oh, he now had an idea of his general thought process, as deranged as it was, but this particular mission did not fit the pattern, mostly. A B-rank with the potential to become A-rank information gathering, capture or assassination wasn't something you would give to a relatively fresh genin team. Even when talking about his team, which was outside the norm, they were being trained as a heavy duty combat unit. While it was important they had at least basic skills in the general shinobi arts, he didn't see how this mission fit his father's plan for them. The three didn't have much of grounding in proper infiltration techniques, only the woefully inadequate acting and disguises course mandatory in the Academy. It wasn't like they had time to work on it before the mission too – the order to deploy came directly after their one week of training following the last fiasco and subsequent time off. It was as if the Hokage wanted the children thrown into the water, so that they may learn to swim, or drown trying. Which was a surprisingly plausible hypothesis, distasteful as it was.

Well it didn't matter in the end. Konoha shinobi had much more personal freedom than some of the other villages but to turn down a high ranking mission was frowned upon. When the mission was personally given by the Hokage, with the backing of the village council, it was night impossible to reject. And besides Asuma was the kids' teacher so he would teach the on the job if he had to. He'd make sure they didn't drown.

But now he had something quite annoying to take care of. He had to go introduce himself to the magistrate, the honored customer for this particular mission, without being noticed of course. He needed a paper trail here for himself and the children, just in case. He also needed a bit more information about the target of the mission. The only thing he really knew was that they were to find out as much as possible about the newest gang of the city especially their leader and if possible capture or assassinate him. It wasn't much but if he had to guess Asuma would put his money on the new gang deciding they didn't want to pay the magistrate and being better at hiding their members than average. Well not that it mattered. People who screened mission for a living have given their approval. If the mission didn't hurt Konoha it was fine.

It'd be good if things didn't go wrong this time.

**Author's notes:  
>Shockingly, I updated. That is all.<strong>

**Cheers,**

**Simon**


End file.
